A Golden Era Still Missing One Item
The Big Three, Serena (and everyone else) have come up short
A note from Christopher: I am bringing this back from the archives in an updated version, available to all subscribers, with the new voiceover available only to paid subscribers.
WIMBLEDON — It now seems much closer to certain that the Grand Slam will not be happening in the golden age, and I must admit that I am surprised.
This long, rich period in tennis has been full to the brim with all-time talent with Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. It also had two of the greatest doubles teams in history with the Bryan brothers and the Williams sisters.
And yet none of the above managed to complete the true Grand Slam, the tennis achievement that you could argue still has the most cachet despite all the record-breaking of the last 25 years. Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka won’t be doing it this year either after both were beaten at the French Open.
By true Grand Slam I mean winning all four major tournaments in the same calendar year, which is the way a Grand Slam was defined in the 1930s when Don Budge first gave successful chase. It is also the way a Grand Slam is defined today in the constitution of the International Tennis Federation.
Though Djokovic, the Williamses and the Bryans did something undeniably lofty by winning four majors in a row, a Serena Slam or Djoko Slam is not the same sort of rare air as the real deal, not the achievement that long-ago champions were pursuing.
The Grand Slam has only been completed in singles by five players: Budge in 1938, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988 (the feat has been much more common lately in wheelchair tennis, an emerging discipline with much, much smaller draws at the majors).
Djokovic, of course, still has a long shot at it. He punches below his age. He is lithe and probably more limber than his rivals from any generation. But he has just completed knee surgery at age 37. You have to think 2023 was his best last chance at the Grand Slam, and when the dazzling youngster, Carlos Alcaraz, came back to win their thriller of a Wimbledon final in five sets, that best last chance was gone.
Djokovic has made an abundance of tennis history. He holds the men’s records for most Grand Slam singles titles and most weeks at No. 1. Those formidable marks, established over a long career, should rightly carry more weight than the work of a single season.
But the Grand Slam is unique, and it’s a beast. The pressure climbs. The focus narrows. And unlike winning four consecutive majors across two seasons, the Grand Slam has a hard-and-fast start date. Fail to win the Australian Open, and it’s over until next year. That means the tension rises earlier and peaks higher, gathering dizzying, disorienting pace if you win Wimbledon and head into the U.S. Open, the final major of the year, with a chance.
“I think winning the calendar-year Grand Slam is a feat we might never see again in our lifetime,” Bob Bryan, the U.S. Davis Cup captain, told me. “In the summer lead-up tournaments to the U.S. Open, it becomes the only topic people want to talk to you about. As a player you try to stay focused and keep your same routine, but it’s impossible not to be affected by the hype and when the U.S. Open starts the pressure becomes even more intense.
“The press conferences are bigger. The lights shine brighter in New York, and all the media obligations become mentally tiring, because you are always answering the same questions about that quest for history. And because you’re the talk of the town, your opponents can quietly prepare and take free swings at you because there’s a bounty on your scalp.”
Bob and his identical twin Mike Bryan, now retired, came into the 2013 U.S. Open having won four majors in a row and were only one title away from the Grand Slam, which no men’s doubles team had completed since the Australians Ken McGregor and Frank Sedgman in 1951.
The Bryans, tightening up, lost in the semifinals 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek, a stellar team to be sure. And yet that hardly softened the blow.
“We knew what was riding on this match, and the opportunity of what we could have accomplished,” Bob said at the time. “In one sense, you know, this is a little bit of a relief. I don’t know about Mike, but I have had a tough time sleeping in the last couple weeks.”
That is the view from inside the doubles bubble. The spotlight on singles players is significantly more intense in this era. Serena Williams, in one of the most valiant phases of her long career, dodged danger, and fought through close matches at the majors throughout 2015. She did not falter until the semifinals of the U.S. Open, failing to hold a 2-0 lead in the final set against Roberta Vinci, a plucky 32-year-old Italian outsider with quick feet and a crisp backhand slice.
The unseeded Vinci finished off quite likely the most seismic upset in tennis history by holding at love to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“Sorry guys, sorry,” the ebullient Vinci said to the largely American crowd.
Williams started her post-match press conference by declaring: "I don't want to talk about how disappointing it is for me. If you have any other questions, I'm open for that."
Though Williams was adamant that she “didn’t feel pressure”, her strokes down the stretch gave quite a different impression as she double-faulted to lose her serve and failed to swing freely through shots to open space that she would normally have ripped with a growl. Her coach Patrick Mouratoglou and even her mother Oracene Price could see the tightness, feel the tension.
At that stage, it seemed that another run at the Grand Slam might be a long time coming, but Djokovic got even closer in New York in 2021 before losing in the final to Daniil Medvedev.
Djokovic had grown into one of sport’s most reliable closers, but he could not win a set against Medvedev. Djokovic did win over the New York crowd, so often ambivalent or even openly hostile to him (see the 2015 final vs Federer). This time, Djokovic did not need to pretend the fans were chanting his name instead of his more beloved opponent’s. There were roars for his winners; chorus after chorus of “Novak, Novak”. But it was to no avail, and on a changeover in the third set, Djokovic sobbed into his white towel, overcome by the crowd’s support and by the impending end to his quest.
Afterward, he expressed a similar emotion to Bob Bryan: relief.
“I was glad it was over,” Djokovic said. “Because the buildup for this tournament and everything that mentally, emotionally I had to deal with throughout the tournament in the last couple of weeks was just a lot. I was just glad that finally the run is over. At the same time, I felt sadness, disappointment and also gratitude for the crowd and for that special moment that they’ve created for me on the court.”
It would have been more extraordinary of course if Djokovic had joined Budge, Connolly, Court, Graf and Laver, the octogenarian Australian lefty who had made the trip to New York in anticipation of Djokovic becoming a member of their very exclusive club.
“I don’t own the club; I’ve just enjoyed belonging to it,” Laver told me that summer. “If someone comes along to win all the four, I’d be the first to congratulate them.”
Laver was certainly ready for company. At one stage, he believed that Federer, the oldest of the Big Three, would join him. But Federer, victorious at 20 majors, never even won the first two legs of the Grand Slam, running repeatedly into the brick wall that is Nadal at Roland Garros. When Nadal proved he was a man for all surfaces by beating Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final, Laver thought the Spaniard might soon join him. But Nadal never managed to win the first three legs and only won the first two in 2022 at age 36 before his body broke down once more.
And so, despite their collective greatness, it has turned out to be none of the Big Three. Djokovic was not stopped by one of his arch-rivals in New York in 2021, but those rivals have thwarted him often through the years, just as he has thwarted them.
Graf remains the last woman to complete the Grand Slam. It has been 36 years and counting, at least until Iga Swiatek learns to love grass. It has been 55 years and counting since Laver’s last masterclass, although Alcaraz and Sinner, with their all-court skills, do set one’s mind to racing toward the future.
The problem is, the Grand Slam is not just about all-court skills. It is about punching, most likely diminished, through the mental barrier.
“You try to keep it somewhat normal,” Bob Bryan said. “But all the stuff seeps into your head and you’re not able to play 100 percent. That’s my take on it.”
However you look at it, the golden age has not quite had it all.
CC