Grand Slam Tennis

Few experiences can match watching some of the best athletes in the world compete at their sport’s highest level. In this case, it also helps if you also like Pong, the Atari classic.

The Grand Slam is broken into four distinct tournaments – the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, and each is an extremely popular global sporting event.

With the distinction of being the oldest, Wimbledon is the only tournament played on grass, whereas the French Open is played on clay. The US and Australian Opens are both played on hard courts. The varied surfaces tend to play to individual players’ strengths, making for exciting rivalries. Each competition is held in world-renowned, cosmopolitan cities: Melbourne, Paris, New York, and London, and divided into five disciplines, including men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. If a player (or players) wins all four majors in a calendar year, they have achieved the coveted Grand Slam.

The Grand Slam tournaments involve big money prizes. The combined prize money for all four tournaments in 2014 was $148 million, and a single tournament generally awards its winners anywhere from $2 - $3 million each. Roger Federer has the men’s title for most grand slam singles titles with 17, but there are actually 6 women who have passed that mark. Margaret Court (who played during the sixties and seventies) holds the all time record for most grand slam singles titles, with 24.