STARNBERG, November 30, 2022 (Guest Post)
If you want to try your luck in tennis tournaments, there are many events you can bet on. For each of these, you can benefit from a bonus by using the BettingOffersFinder site. But if you’re wondering which is the most prestigious tournament, there is only one answer: the Grand Slam.
“The Grand Slam can be considered the star of tennis betting,” says Casino Bonuses Finder product owner Tony Sloterman. “Winning four major championships in a single calendar year is no easy task.” Below we explain what the Grand Slam is and why it is so important in tennis.
There are different ‘Grand Slams’
There are four major championships in tennis: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open. These are held annually, last about two weeks, and soon after one ends, the other begins. A professional tennis player can participate in all these championships within a calendar year. And if he or she manages to win all of them in the same calendar year, this is called a ‘Grand Slam’. But there are other options, too: a tennis player can win all these tournaments throughout his career instead of a calendar year. Such a situation is called a ‘career Grand Slam’.
Grand Slam tournaments are considered the most important and highest-prized events in tennis. Even winning just one of these events is considered an important achievement for a tennis player. Winning all four turns that tennis player into a ‘superstar’. All tournaments are overseen by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), meaning ATP and WTA are not included in the Grand Slam.
The history of Grand Slam
At the beginning of the 20th century, tennis was not a sport with the same rules everywhere. European countries, under the leadership of England and France, came together in 1912 and established a union called “ILTF”. The aim of the association was to determine the rules of tennis on a global scale and to organize world championship events in different categories. The first of these was held in Wimbledon, England. France, on the other hand, started to organize the event known today as the “French Open”.
The United States was also invited to join the ILTF, but the US tennis authorities were not satisfied that world championship events were held only in Europe. Therefore, they sought to create their own organization in alliance with Australia. At that time, tennis was gaining huge popularity among Aussies. This situation continued until 1920: that year, the United States and Australia also agreed to join the ILTF with the condition of holding their own world championships. After that, each of these four countries started to organize a world championship event.
In 1933, a tennis player named Jack Crawford managed to win three of these championships in the same calendar year. John Kieran, who was working as a sports columnist at the time, described a possible victory for Crawford at the upcoming US Open as a ‘Grand Slam’. Normally, this term was used in the game of bridge, but Kieran made it so famous that it is even used today for golf championships. In some years, it was not possible to make a Grand Slam. For example, due to the Second World War between 1940-45, no country except the USA could organize an event. Wimbledon was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19. But apart from these interruptions, the Grand Slam has been considered tennis’ most prestigious achievement for nearly a century.
