Grand Slam tournaments
Historical archive. Facts and results reflect the period recorded.
The Grand Slam tournaments are the four most important and largest tennis competitions: the Australian Open in Melbourne on hard court (January), the French Open in Paris on clay (May/June), Wimbledon in London on grass (June/July), and the US Open in New York on hard court (August/September).
A Grand Slam tournament lasts two weeks. Champions are decided in singles and doubles (both women and men), as well as mixed doubles.
The singles champions receive 2.000 world ranking points.
The Grand Slam tournaments are organised neither by the ATP nor by the WTA, but by the ITF.
Normally, the best players qualify for the main draw 104 players in the world rankings, weitere 16 Tennis players können es über die Qualifying in den Hauptbewerb schaffen.
In practice, however, a current position in the top 104 will not be enough.
The reason is the so-called Protect Ranking. This protects players who have been injured for more than 6 months. The so-called cut will therefore be a few places lower.
Zusätzlich dürfen die Veranstalter weitere acht Spieler per Wildcard enter directly into the 1st round of the main draw. The top 32 on the ATP and WTA Tours are seeded.
An interesting detail: at Grand Slam tournaments, players have only 20 seconds between points rather than the usual 25 seconds.
The last woman to win all the Grand Slam tournaments in a single year, in 1988, was Steffi Graf.