What is a career slam in Tennis

In the sport of tennis, there is a great importance given to the 4 majors i.e. the Australian open, the French Open, Wimbledon (England) and the US Open. All throughout the year the tennis players are busy on the ATP circuit travelling all throughout the globe, making appearances in different ATP tournaments 1000, 500, 250 – but, the real prestige of winning a tournament is only judged through a tennis player’s grand slam record and victories, the rest tournaments are just something for the statisticians to care about; unless you don’t have a grand slam – you aren’t a tennis star.

The points of winning a grand slam are also comparatively higher as opposed to participating in ATP tournament across the globe; the bet of being included amongst the 120 qualifications to a grand slam is in itself a mammoth task for budding tennis players as there are prior qualifying tournaments held for lower seeds to get into the main draw of selection into a grand slam.

The tennis season begins in January with the Australian open, followed by French Open in May, Wimbledon in June and the grand slam winds up with US Open in August – after which the rest of the 4 months the players travel through the parts of America, Dubai, India, Japan to appear in various leagues/charity matches of ATP tournaments to maintain their rankings.

In the sport of tennis, there have been only 4 male singles players who’ve achieved the career-slam i.e. winning all the 4 grand slams during the tenure of their career. These are:

#	Player	Age	Australian Open	French Open	Wimbledon	US Open
1	Fred Perry	26	1934	1935	1934	1933
2	Don Budge	23	1938	1938	1937	1937
3	Rod Laver	24	1960	1962	1961	1962
4	Roy Emerson	27	1961	1963	1964	1961
5	Andre Agassi	29	1995	1999	1992	1994
6	Roger Federer	27	2004	2009	2003	2004
7	Rafael Nadal	24	2009	2005	2008	2010

Source : Wikipedia

While, in the women’s singles; there have been 10 players who have had the great honor of winning all the 4 grand slam :

1	Maureen Connolly Brinker	18	1953	1953	1952	1951
2	Doris Hart	28	1949	1950	1951	1954
3	Shirley Fry Irvin	29	1957	1951	1956	1956
4	Margaret Court	20	1960	1962	1963	1962
5	Billie Jean King	28	1968	1972	1966	1967
6	Chris Evert	27	1982	1974	1974	1975
7	Martina Navratilova	26	1981	1982	1978	1983
8	Steffi Graf	19	1988	1987	1988	1988
9	Serena Williams	21	2003	2002	2002	1999
10	Maria Sharapova	25	2008	2012	2004	2006

In the men’s doubles and women’s doubles, 21 players have achieved this feat and in the mixed doubles 16 players have achieved this record.

#	Player	Age	Australian Open	French Open	Wimbledon	US Open
1	Adrian Quist	26	1936	1935	1935	1939
2	Frank Sedgman	24	1951	1951	1948	1950
3	Ken McGregor	23	1951	1951	1951	1951
4	Lew Hoad	21	1953	1953	1953	1956
Ken Rosewall	22	1953	1953	1956	1956
6	Neale Fraser	25	1957	1958	1959	1957
7	Roy Emerson	25	1962	1960	1959	1959
8	John Newcombe	23	1965	1967	1965	1967
Tony Roche	24	1965	1967	1965	1967
10	Bob Hewitt	37	1963	1972	1962	1977
11	John Fitzgerald	28	1982	1986	1989	1984
Anders Järryd	29	1987	1983	1989	1987
13	Jacco Eltingh	28	1994	1995	1998	1994
Paul Haarhuis	32	1994	1995	1998	1994
15	Todd Woodbridge	29	1992	2000	1993	1995
Mark Woodforde	34	1992	2000	1993	1989
17	Jonas Björkman	32	1998	2005	2002	2003
18	Bob Bryan	30	2006	2003	2006	2005
Mike Bryan	30	2006	2003	2006	2005
20	Daniel Nestor	35	2002	2007	2008	2004
21	Leander Paes	38	2012	1999	1999	2006

(Men’s doubles)

#	Player	Age	Australian Open	French Open	Wimbledon	US Open
1	Louise Brough Clapp	27	1950	1946	1946	1942
2	Doris Hart	26	1949	1951	1951	1951
3	Shirley Fry Irvin	30	1957	1950	1951	1951
4	Maria Bueno	20	1960	1960	1958	1960
5	Margaret Court	22	1961	1964	1964	1963
Lesley Turner Bowrey	21	1964	1964	1964	1961
7	Judy Tegart Dalton	32	1964	1966	1969	1970
8	/ Martina Navratilova	23	1980	1975	1976	1977
9	Kathy Jordan	21	1981	1980	1980	1981
Anne Smith	21	1981	1980	1980	1981
11	Pam Shriver	21	1982	1984	1981	1983
12	Helena Suková	25	1990	1990	1987	1985
13	Gigi Fernández	28	1993	1991	1992	1988
/ Natasha Zvereva	21	1993	1989	1991	1991
15	/ Jana Novotná	25	1990	1990	1989	1994
16	Martina Hingis	17	1997	1998	1996	1998
17	Serena Williams	19	2001	1999	2000	1999
Venus Williams	20	2001	1999	2000	1999
19	Lisa Raymond	33	2000	2006	2001	2001
20	Sara Errani	27	2013	2012	2014	2012
Roberta Vinci	31	2013	2012	2014	2012

(Women’s doubles)

#	Player	Age	Australian Open	French Open	Wimbledon	US Open
1	Jean Borotra	29	1928	1927	1925	1926
2	Doris Hart	26	1949	1951	1951	1951
Frank Sedgman	21	1949	1951	1951	1951
4	Margaret Court	20	1963	1963	1963	1961
5	Ken Fletcher	23	1963	1963	1963	1963
6	Owen Davidson	23	1965	1967	1967	1966
7	Billie Jean King	24	1968	1967	1967	1967
8	Marty Riessen	33	1969	1969	1975	1969
9	Bob Hewitt	39	1961	1970	1977	1979
10	Mark Woodforde	27	1992	1995	1993	1992
11	Todd Woodbridge	24	1993	1992	1994	1990
12	/ Martina Navratilova	46	2003	1974	1985	1985
13	Daniela Hantuchová	22	2002	2005	2001	2005
14	Mahesh Bhupathi	29	2006	1997	2002	1999
15	Cara Black	30	2010	2002	2004	2008
16	Leander Paes	42	2003	2016	1999	2008
Martina Hingis	35	2005	2016	2015	2015

(Mixed doubles)

The 16^th pair in the list i.e. Leander Paes and Martina Hingis achieved this record at this year’s Rolland Garros, the coverage of which we’ve done extensively on our website. Paes and Hingis beat Mirza and Dodig in the mixed doubles final at the French Open 2016.