Multiple Grand Slam Records: Tennis History & the Men's Wimbledon Final

Congratulations are due to Novak Djokovic who not only won Wimbledon for the 6th time but has joined the elite club of 3 Grand Slams in a row in the same calendar year on 3 different surfaces. This is called achieving a 'surface slam'. The only other players to achieve this are: Navratilova (1984), Graf (1993, 1995 and 1996), Serena Williams (2002), Nadal (2010). However, all four of these succeeded in doing so by winning the last 3 Grand Slams in the year ie French Open (RG), Wimbledon and US Open. Djokovic is the only one, apart from Laver in 1969, to win the 3 in a row by winning the first 3 starting with the Australian Open. The 'calendar slam' is surely Djokovic's next goal which means all 4 grand slams in the same calendar year. In the modern era only Steffi Graf has managed this. She is also the only one to achieve a Golden Slam which means she also has an Olympic Gold medal in addition to a calendar grand slam in the same calendar year.

The other historic moment yesterday was that the men's singles final between Djokovic and Berrettini was umpired by a woman umpire, Marija Cicak. She was, I thought, an excellent umpire. Calm, with confident control she had good rapport with the players and the spectators. At no point, did she exacerbate a situation, such as, a noisy crowd who were enjoying the match. She commanded respect from both players and spectators. She showed how a match should be umpired! Cicak is the GOAT umpire!👏👏👏👏

As I wrote on Instagram, I rarely watch the men's final and even more rarely do I watch men's tennis in general. However, I had just made a pasta dish for lunch so I thought my mother and I could watch some tennis together at the same time. Atrocious table manners but it's Wimbledon, so that's different! I was worried 😟that Djokovic's serve wasn't making a big enough in-road at the beginning while Berrettini was slamming them down at a ferocious pace. So we watched the match right the way through as if just by watching it Djokovic would win. He did win because he adapted to the ever evolving situation. What I liked was his explosive power when running forwards. Not only that, he also accelerated mid-run which few players do. Players tend to run evenly for the ball. It was a fascinating match and showed how Djokovic can think through a match. He doesn't just keep doing the same thing if it's not working. 

Djokovic has now been number 1 for 329 weeks (non-consecutively), an all-time record, and this despite the 22 weeks when rankings were frozen due to the pandemic so are not in the calculation. If they had been added he would be at number 1 for 351 weeks. He's overtaken Federer who spent 310 weeks as number 1. Djokovic is also the only male tennis player to hold a Multiple Career Grand Slam by winning all 4 slams at least twice, all in the Open Era (ie. the professional era post-1968) over the course of his career so far. The other two men with a Career Grand Slam were Roy Emerson (born 1936, winning them between 1961-1967) and Rod Laver (born 1938, winning them between 1960-1969, so only two of his 8 slams {French and US Opens both 1969} were post-Open Era). In addition, Djokovic is the only man to win 9/9 Masters tournaments, called a Career Golden Masters, doing so not just once, but twice! In other words, he has won each of the following top ATP titles twice: Indian Wells; Miami; Monte Carlo; Madrid; Rome; Canada; Cincinnati; Shanghai; Paris. Indeed, by winning all these 9 Masters on top of winning all 4 slams as well as the ATP finals tournament (5 times), he is the only man to hold all of the 'Big Titles' on the current ATP tour! Other achievements include sharing with Sampras the most amount of years finishing as number 1 (6 years), the most amount of AO titles ever on the men's tour (9), and the most consecutive AO titles in the Open Era (3 consecutive wins but twice over {2011-13, 2019-21}), and enjoying joint position with Nadal in winning the most Masters events ie 36! Djokovic also holds an Olympic bronze medal (2008). The list goes on. 

It seems that the main rivalry now is between Nadal and Djokovic. This is not because Federer is getting older, it's more to do with his knee surgeries. He needs more time to play competitive matches because he missed so many tournaments over the past year and a bit trying to recover while Nadal and Djokovic played on when circumstances allowed. All 3 are on 20 Grand Slam titles each. Who will break rank and reach 21🏆?🤔