Centre Court

What is a Grand Slam tournament? The term “Grand Slam” is borrowed from the card game bridge, where it means – to take in one draw all thirteen taken, not given to rivals, none. Winning a Grand Slam to win all four tournaments in one season is virtually the highest goal for tennis players, entering only the Golden Slam – if there is Olympic gold plus More Slam. The history of the term dates back to 1933, when Australian Jack Crawford was close to winning all four tournaments. He has already won three tournaments in a year and reached the finals of the US Open in New York. John Kieran, who worked as a sports commentator for the New York Times and was a card player, citing his collection of analogies to the big slam in the bridge: “If Crawford wins today at Perry, it will be the same as winning the Grand Slam on the court.” Crawford eventually lost, but the abandoned phrase became entrenched and began to be used. According to one version, the spokesman of the movement in 1938, when Donald Budge won these four tournaments during the year, and the famous American journalist Allison Danzig said that “as a successful bridge game, Budge created the Grand Slam for winning the four biggest tennis tournaments during the calendar year “.