The Grand Slam is made up of the 4 major tennis tournaments :
1. Australian Open in January,
2. French Open in May and June,
3. Wimbledon in June and July,
4. US Open in August and September
The Australian Open which is also known as the Asia Pacific Grand Slam is held in Melbourne in mid-January and is traditionally the season opener. The competition is played on a hard surface and has been played under very high temperatures. The first game was played in 1905.
The French Open is played at the Roland Garros courts in Paris which started as a one-day tournament in 1891. The competition flourished during the heyday of French tennis in the first half of the 20th century. It began to accept non-French competitors in 1925 and become an open competition in 1968
The Wimbledon championships is the oldest tennis tournament in the world – it was first played in 1877. Tradition still plays a large part in the championships. The matches are played on grass, so some players do not like the competition, while many others say it is their favorite surface.
The last major in the tennis season is the US Open at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York. It was held on grass until 1974, moved to clay from 1975 to 1977 and then became a hard court tournament. The Arthur Ashe court can seat 20,000 viewers at one time with floodlit matches.
To win all the 4 Grand Slam tournaments in a year is call Calendar Year Grand Slam . This is consider rather rare and amazing for a professional tennis player. So far a calendar-year Grand Slam has been achieved in tennis singles 6 times -> Don Budge, Maureen Connolly, Rod Laver (twice), Margaret Court and Steffi Graf.
So who will be our next Calendar Year Grand Slam winner?