How Many Tennis Players Have Won All 4 Grand Slams?
The tennis world looks forward to four Grand Slam tournaments every year. A tennis player who wins all four major tournaments in a year has earned a Grand Slam, while a player who wins each tournament at least once in their career has won a Career Grand Slam.
Both types of Grand Slams are quite rare. Here’s a look at the pro tennis players who barely missed the mark, as well as those who’ve won all four Grand Slams.
18 tennis players have a Career Grand Slam
In total, 18 tennis players have completed a Career Grand Slam, according to the U.S. Open. Eight of them are men; 10 of them are women. Unsurprisingly, since this is such a tough achievement, many of these players are either the greatest ever or, at the very least, very well-known.
Women who have achieved a Career Grand Slam:
- Maureen Connolly (1953)
- Doris Hart (1954)
- Shirley Fry Irvin (1957)
- Margaret Smith Court (1963)
- Billie Jean King (1972)
- Chris Evert (1982)
- Martina Navratilova (1983)
- Steffi Graf (1988)
- Serena Williams (2003)
- Maria Sharapova (2012)
Men who have achieved a Career Grand Slam:
- Fred Perry (1935)
- Don Budge (1938)
- Rod Laver (1962)
- Roy Emerson (1964)
- Andre Agassi (1999)
- Roger Federer (2009)
- Rafael Nadal (2010)
- Novak Djokovic (2016)
Five players won all four Grand Slams in a single year
A true Grand Slam is one of the most impressive feats in tennis, but technically speaking, a player who completes a Grand Slam has also completed a Career Grand Slam. In 1938, Don Budge became the first player to complete a Grand Slam. In 1953, Maureen Connolly became the first woman to complete a Grand Slam.
Rod Laver was next, in 1962. However, Laver is unique as he won a Grand Slam twice, with his second in 1969. A year later, Margaret Court earned her Grand Slam. Finally, the last Grand Slam champion was Steffi Graf in 1988.
Tennis players who barely missed out on a Career Grand Slam
Since so few tennis players have won a Grand Slam or Career Grand Slam, many have missed out on winning all four tournaments by just one competition. One of the best tennis players to miss out on a Career Grand Slam is Boris Becker.
The German player earned over $100 million in his career. Becker has won the Australian Open twice, the U.S. Open twice, and Wimbledon three times. However, he was never able to win in the French Open before he retired in 1999.
Another prominent example is Martina Hingis, regarded as one of the best female tennis players of all time. In fact, in 1997, she won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments while still a teenager. Like Becker, she lost in the French Open. This became the one Grand Slam tournament she never won before she retired in 2017.
