Novak Djokovic is a 34-year-old professional tennis player who has won 85 championships and competed in over 1100 matches. However, he appears to be more of a big wave surfer at the moment, perched on the crest of all that expertise as he tries to complete the ride of a lifetime by completing a calendar-year Grand Slam at the US Open.
Most Grand Slam singles titles, most years as the year-end No. 1, and so on are among the most valuable records in tennis. A Grand Slam, on the other hand, takes only seven months to complete. Each year, only one player—the winner of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the year—has a chance to win all four major tournaments.
Only five times in the history of Grand Slam tennis has a single-player won all four Slams in the same year. Only two males and three women have smashed grandly. Rod Laver was the last man to do it twice, first as an amateur and then, more impressively, as a professional in 1969. In the Open Era, only Rod Laver and Steffi Graf have won all four Grand Slams.
Consider this: Djokovic, along with rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, may be the greatest players in history. They have a combined total of 60 Grand Slam singles championships, but this is the first time either of them has reached the final of a Grand Slam.
