The Grand Slam

Rod Laver is still the only person that has won the Grand Slam twice. Only one other man, and three women, have ever won a Grand Slam; they are Donald Budge (USA, 1938), Maureen Connolly (USA, 1953), Margaret Smith Court (Australia, 1970) and Steffi Graf (Germany, 1988).

Rod Laver's first Grand Slam singles title was the Australian Open in 1960, and his second was Wimbledon in the following year. He turned professional in December 1962, after winning his first Grand Slam and helping Australia to win the Davis Cup. The world's two top professionals at the time were fellow Australians Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad; Laver surpassed first Hoad and then Rosewall, and by 1965 he was the (unofficial) world No. 1 in professional tennis.

Following the dawn of the Open Era, Laver won the first open Wimbledon (1968), and in 1969 he won his second Grand Slam. But he never won another Grand Slam title. His career record stands at four Wimbledons, three Australian Opens, two French Opens and two US Opens – total 11.

Of the leading tennis players in more recent times (up to and including the 2017 French Open):

Novak Djokovic has won the Australian Open six times, Wimbledon three times, the US Open twice and the French Open once (total 13). His French Open win came in 2016, and this meant that he held all four Grand Slam singles titles at the same time – the closest any man, since Laver, has come to a Grand Slam. But at Wimbledon that year (2016) he lost to Sam Querrey in the third round, and he was beaten by Stan Wawrinka in the final of the US Open.

Like Djokovic, Roger Federer has won the French Open only once – in 2009. He also won Wimbledon that year, but he'd already lost to Rafael Nadal in the final of the Australian Open, and in the US Open he was beaten – also in the final – by Juan Martin Del Potro.

Federer won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in three separate years: 2004, 2006 and 2007.

One major reason for Djokovic and Federer's lack of success in the French Open is of course Rafael Nadal, who has won the men's singles title in that tournament ten times. His first win was in 2005; apart from Djokovic and Federer, the only other French Open Men's Singles champion since then has been Stan Wawrinka in 2015.

Nadal has also won Wimbledon twice, the US Open twice, and the Australian Open once. His best year was 2010, when he won the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Serena Williams has won the Australian Open and Wimbledon seven times each, the US Open six times, and the French Open three times. These 23 titles have been spread over 19 years (1999–2017); her best years were 2002 (when she won the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) and 2015 (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon).

Pete Sampras won Wimbledon seven times, the US Open five times, the Australian Open twice, and the French Open once – total 15. But he never won more than two Grand Slam singles titles in any one calendar year.

Bjorn Borg won the French Open six times, Wimbledon five times and the US Open four times, but he only entered the Australian Open once (in 1974, at the age of 17) and he lost in the third round. His best years were 1978 and 1980, when he won all three Northern Hemisphere Grand Slam singles tournaments.

Monica Seles came close to winning the Grand Slam in both 1991 and 1992, when she won the Australian, French and US Opens. But she missed Wimbledon in 1991 due to shin splints, and the following year she was beaten by Steffi Graf her only Wimbledon singles final. She won a third consecutive Australian Open title in 1993, but it was in April of that year that she was seriously injured in the infamous stabbing incident. She only returned to the tour in August 1995. She won the Australian Open again in 1996, but that was her last Grand Slam title.

Chris Evert won a total of 18 Grand Slam singles titles, including seven at the French Open and six at the US Open. But like her compatriot Pete Sampras, she never won more than two Grand Slam singles titles in any one calendar year.

Martina Navratilova also won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, nine of them at Wimbledon (including six in a row, 1982–7). Her best years in Singles were 1983 (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open) and 1984 (French Open, Wimbledon and US Open). She has also been by far the most successful doubles player of all those featured on this page – winning no fewer than 29 women's doubles titles, including a Grand Slam in 1984.

In 20 of her women's doubles titles, including all four legs of the 1984 Grand Slam, Navratilova's partner was Pam Shriver. Without Navratilova, Shriver won only two Grand Slam titles: the Mixed Doubles at the French Open in 1987 (with Emilio Sánchez Vicario) and the Women's Doubles at the US Open in 1991 (with Natasha Zvereva of Belarus).

Navratilova also won nine Grand Slam Mixed Doubles titles (four at Wimbledon, three US Opens, and one each at the French and Australian Opens). In 1985 she won the Mixed Doubles titles at Wimbledon and both the French and US Opens; as there was no Mixed Doubles tournament at the Australian Open that year (or any other year between 1970 and 1986) this was a Grand Slam of sorts.

All in all, that's an incredible total of 56 Grand Slam titles.

Martina Navratilova had eight different partners in her nine Mixed Doubles victories. The only one with whom she won more than one was Heinz Günthardt of Switzerland (US and French Opens, in 1985).