The Grand Slams are made up of the four major tennis tournaments
- The Australian Open
- The French Open
- The Championships at Wimbledon
- The US Open.
The term 'Grand Slam' dates back to 1933 when Australia’s Jack Crawford won the Australian, French and Wimbledon Championships and reached the final of the US Championships against the British player Fred Perry. On the eve of the final, John Kieran, a keen bridge player, wrote in the New York Times that “If Crawford beats Perry today, it would be something like scoring a Grand Slam on the courts, doubled and vulnerable.” Crawford led two sets to love, but tired and lost in five sets. Perry went on to become the first player to win the four titles, but not in the same calendar year.
In 1938 Don Budge set out deliberately to achieve the Grand Slam before he turned professional, which he did. Alison Danzig of the New York Times then wrote that “Budge had achieved “a grand slam that invites comparison with the accomplishment of Bobby Jones in golf.”
The phrase gained use in common parlance and now is used to refer to the four most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. In 1989, the Grand Slams joined forces for the first time to form the Grand Slam Committee which, among other responsibilities, administers the Grand Slam rules.