The tennis season encapsulates tournaments of diverse location, prestige, and court speed, but the most well-known events are undoubtedly the four majors, or Grand Slams, scattered across the calendar. Each is worth more points than any non-major event (2000 points), and features a lengthened best-of-five format on the men’s side, but the similarities between the slams end there. The majors feature distinct personalities; over the many decades that they have been played each has cultivated a detailed image. From the air of sophistication at Wimbledon to the boisterous, celebrity-pockmarked crowd at the U.S. Open, the majors are four siblings with different appearances and substances.
The Australian Open
The first major of the year, the Australian Open, takes place in Melbourne Park, a network of courts near the city for which it is named. Scorching temperatures are reached during many editions of the tournament, even during the night matches under the lights of Rod Laver Arena, the show court named for the great Australian. Laver achieved the calendar Grand Slam (the name can now be applied to the majors, but its original meaning was winning all four majors in the same year) twice, lifting him to legendary status. He can be seen at the Australian Open every year.
The 2020 tournament (literally) had a dark cloud above the courts. Australia was ravaged by bushfires early this year, and the air quality was deemed by experts to be unsafe for periods in January. Still, the qualifying rounds preceded without an appropriately long delay, resulting in casualties of the smoky air such as Dalila Jakupovic (read my piece on the fiasco here).
Still, the Australian Open is called the “Happy Slam” for a reason. As it’s early in the year (taking place from mid-January to early February), it often features a full and healthy draw of the world’s best players. Some of the best matches in recent and all history have taken place on Rod Laver Arena, like the Simona Halep-Angelique Kerber semifinal in 2018 (both players saved match points before Halep won the match 9-7 in the third. Watch highlights here). Wild momentum swings can occur — at this year’s tournament, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, who now own a combined 14 Australian Open titles (Djokovic has eight, Federer has six), played in the semifinals. Federer got off to a fast start, taking a 4-1 lead in the first set and earning a love-40 advantage in Djokovic’s service game. Thirty-five minutes later, Djokovic led 6-1 in the tiebreak that he had forced by saving all three break points, holding from love-30 down at 2-5, and breaking Federer to love, getting back on serve.
As Federer prepared to serve at 1-6 down in the first set tiebreak, the camera panned over the court from an aerial angle, reducing the gladiators to specks on the vibrant blue court which stood out against the purple and yellow glow of the sunset. It seemed that Federer’s lead had slipped away faster than the day itself, and that his chances of winning were fading as the light left the evening, as if it were Djokovic himself pulling the sun below the horizon. Djokovic hammered home this perception by meeting Federer’s first serve with a powerful backhand return, sending the ball screaming down the line for a winner. Djokovic went on to close out the match 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-3 as the pink and violet sky gave way to the inky darkness of night, and would win the final two nights later to win his eighth title in Melbourne.
The Australian Open has gained much prestige in the last half century. Many greats of the 1980s and even 90s skipped it in favor of rest, training, or other tournaments. But over time, it has caught up to the other three majors in terms of historical value and importance. After 1986, it was moved from December to January, and now sets the tone for the rest of the year. The winner of the tournament bags 2000 points, as is the case with all majors, and often enters the Sunshine Swing (the Indian Wells and Miami tournaments) as the favorite.
Roland-Garros
The second major of the year also goes by the name “The French Open”, Roland-Garros being a French fighter pilot in World War I. Between the Australian Open and this major, tournaments shift from hard courts to clay in order to prepare the tour for the slower surface. Court Philippe-Chatrier, the show court of Roland-Garros, though a roof has been installed this year, has a less enclosed feel than Rod Laver Arena. Players can take advantage of the slower pace, sliding to get in position for their shots.
Roland-Garros is the major prize that has eluded many legends of the game, and fittingly, the red clay sticks to players’ clothes, looking similar to dried blood.
Rafael Nadal has mastered Roland-Garros like no one ever has and likely ever will, winning the tournament on his first attempt in 2005 and winning 11 of the next 14 editions of the championship. Yet the Parisian crowd doesn’t always favor the King of Clay, instead throwing their support more solidly behind Federer, who won his only Roland-Garros title in 2009.
On the women’s side, players have briefly ruled the tournament, but not with the same consistency as Nadal. Justine Henin won four titles in Paris in five years (2003, 2005-2007), and Serena Williams has won Roland-Garros three times, but the women’s tournament has seen six different winners in the last six years (for context, the men’s side has had three different winners in the last six years, and just four in the last fifteen years).
Roland-Garros likely houses the most scarcely-believable sliding retrievals among the majors. Court Philippe-Chatrier has seen some incredible shots; in 2015, Stanislas Wawrinka directed a one-handed backhand between the net post and a box reading “IBM” (one of the sponsors of the tournament), slotting the winner through a gap smaller than half a foot.
Patience is required to win Roland-Garros. What would be a winner at Wimbledon may be returned deep on the red clay in Paris, and point construction is key. Many rallies end with one or both players visibly tired.
Wimbledon
Wimbledon is the major most leaden with history. It is the only slam to enforce a dress code, and all athletes dress in white. Established in 1877, the tournament is probably the one that most tennis players dream of winning as children. Wimbledon has seen 15-year-old Cori Gauff take out five-time champion Venus Williams (Gauff’s senior by more than 22 years), a timeless Federer-Nadal final end in twilight and an explosion of flashbulbs, one-sided matches, and a freakish John Isner-Nicolas Mahut first-round match end 70-68 in the fifth (the extended deciding set has since been done away with, there is now a tiebreak at 12-all in the final set).
As the fans and royals eat strawberries and cream, players do battle on the meticulously trimmed grass courts of the All England Club. Center Court is the most famous at Wimbledon, though a side court, Court 2, is known as the “Graveyard of Champions”, such is its reputation for housing upsets.
Players with powerful serves are often successful at Wimbledon as grass is a faster surface than clay and most hard courts, but a serve alone is never enough to win the title. The grass has slowed in recent years, and the champions of the last few tournaments haven’t been huge servers.
Martina Navratilova has been the most successful player ever at Wimbledon, winning the event nine times. From 1982 to 1987, her serve-and-volley based game ruled the lawns. While that style is now all but extinct, players like Navratilova, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, and Pete Sampras have left a permanent mark on SW19. And serve-and-volley appears more at Wimbledon than at the other majors.
Silence typically falls on Center Court as a player goes into their service motion. The crowds have a reputation for being well-behaved (though many feel otherwise after they exhibited fierce support of Federer over Djokovic in last year’s final). But as the server bounces the ball, the sound echoes around Center Court, followed by the noises of effort and ballstriking during the points, as if the venue is soaking up the history and significance of each shot.
The U.S. Open
In many ways, the United States Open is a foil to Wimbledon. The crowd is more boisterous; far more excited yells will fill the air during a good rally in Flushing Meadows than at other slams. The celebrities that populate the audience get at least as much attention from the cameras as the Royal Box does at SW19.
The crowd unsurprisingly loves American players over all others, but they have adopted others too, a notable example being Juan Martín del Potro of Argentina. Fans showered him with adoration as he pulled off a stunning upset of Federer to win the 2009 U.S. Open, and have kept their support behind him ever since. They have been given reason to cheer despite del Potro’s nagging wrist injuries — he executed the kind of comeback that couldn’t have been scripted any better on paper over Dominic Thiem in the fourth round of the 2017 tournament. The crowd erupted after each of del Potro’s missile-like forehand winners, helping propel the Argentinean to an improbable win from two sets down.
The fans at the U.S. Open play a big part in matches. They form grudges, as they did against Djokovic during a controversial on-court interview he had after beating crowd favorite Andy Roddick. Though Djokovic has since won the tournament three times, the fans haven’t completely come around on him yet.
Boos can pour from Arthur Ashe Stadium at any time — many fans will make their displeasure known when an athlete stops play to argue with the umpire, even if they don’t know the reason for the argument.
The U.S. Open has an air of unpredictability. The top players have had plenty of success there, but in 2015 Serena Williams, who was on the cusp of completing a calendar Grand Slam, shockingly lost to the unseeded Roberta Vinci in the semifinals. It was among the biggest upsets in tennis history. On the men’s side, since Federer won the last of his five consecutive titles in 2008, no one has been able to defend their title. The positioning of the U.S. Open in the calendar means that many players are worn out or injured by the time the tournament begins, so some years the fortnight can be flat, but other years the exciting atmosphere is supplemented by huge upsets and quality matches.
While the majors are extremely different, not just in venue but in crowd personality and atmosphere, they are collectively the height of excellence in tennis. Each has been the setting for moments and matches that are etched into the minds of fans around the world, and the tournaments will continue to watch as players make history.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment or tweet @tennisnation. Be safe!