4 players who have won the Triple Career Grand Slam, ft. Steffi Graf, Novak Djokovic
A Career Grand Slam is a rare feat in tennis. It refers to winning all the four Grand Slam tournaments - Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and US Open - at least once during the course of one's career.
To put that into numbers, only eight male players and 10 female players - across the Amateur and Open Eras - have achieved the coveted feat. Among them, three male players and five female players won each Grand Slam at least twice - a feat known as the Double Career Grand Slam.
Rarer still is the Triple Career Grand Slam - winning each Major at least thrice. The number of players to have done so comes down to four, with three of them doing so in the Open Era. One joined the ultra exclusive group only last week at the French Open.
So, without further ado, here are the four players in tennis history to have achieved the Triple Career Grand Slam.
#4 Novak Djokovic
Widely regarded as one of the sport's best players, Novak Djokovic added another feather to his cap after winning his third French Open title on Sunday.
That win made the Serb the first male player to win the Triple Career Grand Slam, with only two other male players - Rafael Nadal and Rod Laver - managing the Double Career Grand Slam.
Djokovic beat Casper Ruud in straight sets to win a record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, breaking a tie with Nadal. That's the most in the Open Era, along with Serena Williams as Djokovic also became the oldest Roland Garros champion.
The Serb has also won a record 10 titles at the Australian Open, seven at Wimbledon and three at the US Open, leaving an indelible mark in tennis history.
#3 Serena Williams
Arguably one of the greatest female athletes across sports, Serena Williams walked into the history books with her third Roland Garros triumph in 2015. That made her the third player - all women - to bag the Triple Career Grand Slam.
The-then 33-year-old American beat Lucie Safarova in three sets to reign supreme on the claycourts of Paris for the second time in three years, third overall. Williams had won her first Roland Garros title in 2002.
Apart from her three French Open triumphs, the now-retired Williams also won seven titles at the Australian Open, seven at Wimbledon and six at the US Open. Following her 2017 Australian Open triumph, Williams fell short in consecutive Wimbledon (2018-19) and US Open (2018-19) finals.
It meant that the 23-time Grand Slam winner ended her illustrious career just one title shy of Margaret Court on the all-time Grand Slam singles leaderboard.
#2 Steffi Graf (Quadruple Career Grand Slam)
Steffi Graf is another legend of the sport. With 22 Grand Slam singles titles, the German stands third on the all-time title leaderboard.
Graf achieved the Triple Career Grand Slam at the 1993 US Open, beating Helena Sukova in straight sets. That marked her third title at Flushing Meadows, four years after she won her second. Since then, she made the final, semifinals and quarterfinals in the following years before going all the way in 1993.
Earlier that year, she won her third title at Roland Garros and fifth at Wimbledon after losing in the Australian Open final. It marked the third time Graf made all four Grand Slam finals in a season, having done so earlier in 1988 and 1989.
In fact, two years later, Graf won her fourth Roland Garros and US Open titles to become the only player to complete the Quadruple Career Grand Slam, having won her fourth Australian Open title in 1994.
Among the four players on this list, Graf is the only one to accomplish the Calendar Year Grand Slam - winning all four Majors in the same season. That feat has only been achieved by Rod Laver (1969) in the Open Era.
#1 Margaret Court
Margaret Court is one of the earliest female superstars of the sport. With 24 Grand Slam singles titles across the Amateur and Open Eras, the 80-year-old stands alone atop the all-time Grand Slam singles leaderboard.
Court became the first player to win the Triple Career Grand Slam when she won her third title at Wimbledon in 1970, beating Billie Jean King in straight sets in the final. Tiebreakers were not a thing back then when Court beat King 14-12, 11-9.
Her triumph that year also meant that she joined Rod Laver as the second player in the Open Era (since 1968 Roland Garros) to win the Career Grand Slam.
Court won the Australian Open a record 11 times (four times in the Open Era), Roland Garros five times (four times in the Open Era), Wimbledon thrice (once in the Open Era), and US Open five times (thrice in the Open Era).