The grand slams in tennis

There are four grand slams a year for tennis players.
Grand slams involve about 128 players in singles for both men and women.
No other events are held at that time.
Matches for men are the best of 5 sets and for women the best of 3 sets.
Many of the other tournaments are only the best of 3 sets for the men.

The first grand slam of the year is in Melbourne, Australia around mid January, our summer. The court has a rebound ace surface. It is called the Australian Open. The tournament was first played in 1905 as The Australasian Championships, became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969. Since 1905, The Championships have been staged at six different venues as follows: Melbourne [46 times], Sydney [17 times] Adelaide [14 times], Brisbane [eight times], Perth [three times] and New Zealand [twice] in 1906 & 1912. In 1972, it was decided to stage the Tournament in the one city each year, as opposed to visiting various states across the nation, and the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club was selected due to Melbourne attracting the biggest patronage. Until 1987 it used to be on grass during December and I spent many a match at courtside at Kooyong before it was moved to Melbourne Park. As tennis became more popular and commercial, the Kooyong court became too small. The event moved to Melbourne Park and is now in January. It is the only Grand Slam event where the stadium has a roof so it can be shut if it rains or the temperatures get too high. It is played on a slow rebound ace surface.
Australian Open 2006


The French Open dates back to 1891 and has been played on clay at Roland Garros since 1921. It is in late May to early June. The ball bounces higher on this sort of court and suits baseline players. Rallies can be very long. The player can reach further because of the ability to slide.

Wimbledon is next on the calendar and is held in late June to early July, making it difficult for players to adjust to grass after clay in a short time. It has been held since 1877. Winning Wimbledon is considered the pinnacle of tennis. The surface is fast and the ball bounces low and unevenly so it suits serve volleyers, or used to, as this form of the game is disappearing.

The US Open is held at Flushing Meadows, Queens,NY in early September and has been played there since 1978. Before that it was in Rhode Island. It can be very noisy being just near La Guardia airport. It can also be very hot and very humid. The surface is a hard court made of Decoturf. It is considered the second most important tournament to win.