How does the Calendar Grand Slam in tennis compare to other near-impossible sports feats?
The final of the 2015 US Open will be as exciting as any of the previous editions, but it will also be one of the most significant ones in history. A tennis player from the women’s game is set to complete an elusive and highly coveted calendar-year Grand Slam, which is a rare feat that has been accomplished by very few in the history of the game.
Serena Williams is just two wins away from becoming the most recent holder of this prestigious achievement; the last player to get there was Steffi Graff in 1988. The American enters her semi-final clash against unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci as an overwhelming favourite, having clinically dispatched all her opponents up to this point – including a tough three-setter against her older sister Venus Williams.
The 33-year-old has been consistently brilliant since turning pro in 1995. Her list of Major titles includes 6 Australian Opens, 3 French Opens, 6 Wimbledon titles and 6 US Opens, making her one of the greatest female players to have ever graced the sport. She has also owned the four Grand Slams at the same time on two occasions, once in 2002-03 and the second time being the current spell beginning with her 2014 US Open win.
Despite all these incredible records, Serena will be itching to get her name etched in the record books alongside former tennis greats who have achieved a Calendar Grand Slam. Only five other tennis players have achieved this feat – Rod Laver (twice), Don Budge, Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court and Steffi Graff.
The feat would be rare and amazing, and one which is unique to the sport. But how does this compare to near-impossible feats in other sports? We take a look.
Note: Serena lost to Roberta Vinci in the semifinals to miss out on the calendar-year grand slam.
Football:
The continuing improvement of football over the years makes it hard for the impossible achievements to stay impossible forever. Plenty of records have gone down the drain over the past decade, although most of those have one man’s name on it – Lionel Messi.
Messi has pretty much confirmed himself as one of the greatest players of all time, rewriting records season after season and consistently pulling off something brilliant every time he steps on the field. The Barcelona player is unarguably Barcelona’s greatest ever, having scored 426 goals in 519 appearances for the Catalan club. He has won them plenty of trophies since his debut in 2004.
The one rare achievement that he has accomplished is quite comparable to the Calendar Grand Slam of tennis, as it will probably not be broken anytime soon unless the Argentine decides to do it himself. His 91 goals in the 2011-12 season made him the first player in the history of the game to score more than 90 goals in a season and just the second player to have scored more than 80 goals.
This comfortably beat German legend Gerd Muller’s 1972 record by 6 goals, although it might have been much more had it not been for an injury he suffered towards the end of the year.
Cricket:
Taking a 10-wicket haul in a single innings of a Test match is such a rare instance in cricket, that it has only been managed by two players so far.
Jim Laker became the first man to take all 10 wickets in an innings when he bowled out Australia with figures of 10 for 53 in the second innings of the fourth Ashes test in 1956. He had also taken nine scalps in the first innings of the same match, making him the only bowler to have picked up more than 18 wickets in a first-class match.
The Englishman is joined by Anil Kumble, whose performance in India’s 212-run victory over Pakistan in 1999 will be etched in the memories of every Indian fan for decades to come. The leg-break bowler ripped through the opposition’s lineup with a clinical bowling performance that packed plenty of pace and accuracy, which have been the two main attributes behind his highly successful career.