Tennis Majors Across Eras: Amateur, Open and Modern

The four Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, are the sport's most prestigious events, and the number of singles titles an player has won across them is the headline statistic in any discussion of tennis greatness. Yet the context in which those titles were won has changed a great deal since the first tournaments in the nineteenth century. This guide explains the main eras and why a simple count needs to be read with some care.

The amateur era

For the first several decades of the Grand Slam tournaments, entry was restricted to amateur players. Wimbledon began in 1877, the US championships in 1881, the French championships in 1891 (originally only for French club members, opened to international players in 1925) and the Australasian championships in 1905. Travel was slow and expensive, so the strongest players did not always enter every event, and the Australian tournament in particular drew fields that were thinner than those of the other three for much of the early period.

The idea of a calendar-year Grand Slam, winning all four majors in the same year, was established in this period. Don Budge became the first man to do it in 1938, and Maureen Connolly the first woman in 1953.

Professionals excluded

From the 1920s onwards, a group of the world's best players turned professional, which made them ineligible for the majors. Rod Laver, who won the calendar-year Grand Slam in 1962 as an amateur, turned professional in 1963 and was barred from the Grand Slams for five years during what would have been the prime of his career. He came back in the Open Era and won the calendar-year Grand Slam again in 1969, the only man to do so twice. Players like Pancho Gonzales, Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall were also kept out of the majors for years. Their absence makes comparisons difficult: the titles that they did not have a chance to win do not appear in any count.

The Open Era from 1968

In 1968 the Grand Slam tournaments opened to professionals, and that year is the start of the Open Era. From then on, the best players in the world have competed in the same events, and statistics from 1968 onward are regarded by many as a more consistent basis for comparison. This is why you will often see two versions of a record: all-time and Open Era. On many tennis statistics lists the leaders are the same under both definitions, but not in every case.

Margaret Court's total of 24 singles major titles is the clearest example of a count that spans the divide. Her titles were won between 1960 and 1973, which includes both the amateur and Open eras, and the debate about how to compare them with titles won by later players, notably Serena Williams (23 titles) and Steffi Graf (22), is well known. Court won the calendar-year Grand Slam in 1970 in the Open Era, and her record in the Open Era alone remains outstanding. Our women's major titles ranking explains where each title was won.

Surfaces and scheduling

Another change concerns playing surfaces. Until the 1970s, two of the four majors were played on grass. The US Open moved from grass to clay (1975-77) to hard courts (1978 onwards), and the Australian Open moved from grass to hard courts in 1988. Today, the four tournaments are played on grass, clay and two on hard courts. Players who excel on one surface have a different opportunity in each era. The fact that modern players must be successful on three different surfaces to complete a career Grand Slam is part of the reason that total is considered a hallmark of a great career.

The calendar has also changed. For some years, the Australian Open was held in December, and there were years in which it was not held at all because of travel difficulty in the war years. Today the four events have fixed places in the calendar, and the top players compete in all of them.

Depth of the field

The number of players with realistic chances to win a major has increased as the sport has globalised. In the early twentieth century, fields were largely drawn from a few countries. Today, players from dozens of countries compete, and the full-time professional structure, with coaches, trainers and physiotherapists, has raised the baseline level. A title won today has to be won against a deeper field, but the three or four best players of any generation can still dominate, as the era of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic showed. They shared a very large portion of the majors played over about two decades.

Best-of-five and the men's game

Men's Grand Slam matches are played over best of five sets, which makes them physically more demanding than the best-of-three format used in most professional tournaments and in the women's game. This is a structural difference between the men's and women's lists, and it is one reason we separate them. The lists can be compared on the number of titles, but the format of the matches is not identical.

How to read the lists

1. Check whether a title count is all-time or Open Era only.
2. Notice how many titles were won in the amateur era, when professionals were excluded.
3. Take surfaces into account, especially for results before 1988.
4. Consider the strength of the field in the year in question.
5. For active players, remember that the count can still rise, and check the verification date.

Our men's and women's rankings list the sources for every title count. For the general principle behind the way we handle such lists, see the methodology page.