Four tournaments sit above everything else in tennis. They are older than the professional tours, older than the world rankings, older than almost every trophy the sport hands out. Here is how the Grand Slams came to be, and why winning all four in a single year is still the hardest thing to do in the game.

What “Grand Slam” means

The phrase comes from card games, where a grand slam means winning every trick on the table. Tennis borrowed it in 1933, when the American writer John Kieran used it to describe the Australian Jack Crawford's bid to win all four major titles in one year. Crawford fell a match short, but the name stuck. Five years later, in 1938, Don Budge became the first player to actually do it, taking Australia, France, Wimbledon, and the United States in a single season.

Wimbledon, 1877

The oldest of the four, and the oldest tournament in tennis. The All England Club staged its first Championships in 1877 on the lawns of a croquet club in south-west London, with a single event: men's singles. Women's singles arrived in 1884. Nearly a century and a half later it is still played on grass, still in the heart of summer, and still the title every player grows up dreaming about. Read more about a Wimbledon fantasy pool.

The US Open, 1881

The United States held its first national championship in 1881 at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island, open only to member clubs, with a women's championship following in 1887. The tournament moved to Forest Hills in New York in 1915, opened its doors to professionals in 1968 and took the name US Open, and settled into its current home in Flushing Meadows in 1978. Its surface changed along the way, from grass to clay to the hard courts it is known for today. Read more about a US Open fantasy pool.

Roland-Garros, 1891

France crowned its first champion in 1891, though for years the field was limited to members of French clubs. It opened to international players in 1925. Three years later the country built a new stadium in Paris to defend the Davis Cup it had just won, and named it after Roland Garros, a French aviator and war hero. The tournament has been played on its demanding red clay ever since, where rallies run long and nothing comes for free. Read more about a Roland-Garros fantasy pool.

The Australian Open, 1905

The youngest major began in 1905 as the Australasian Championships, moving between cities across Australia and New Zealand in its early decades before Melbourne became its permanent home. It took the name Australian Open in 1969. In 1988 it moved to a purpose-built site at Melbourne Park and traded its grass courts for hard courts, the surface it uses today. As the first major of the season, it opens the year every January. Read more about an Australian Open fantasy pool.

The Open Era, 1968

For most of their history the majors were amateur events, and professionals, including many of the best players in the world, could not enter. That changed in 1968, when the tournaments opened to professionals and amateurs alike. Tennis calls everything since the Open Era, and it is the line that separates the modern record books from what came before.

The calendar Grand Slam

Winning all four majors in the same calendar year is the rarest feat in tennis. Among the men, only Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver have done it, and Laver did it twice, in 1962 and again in 1969. Among the women, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Margaret Court in 1970, and Steffi Graf in 1988 share the honor. Graf's year stands alone: she added Olympic gold to her four majors, the only Golden Slam the sport has seen.

A short history of the Grand Slams