Chasing a Grand Slam: It’s Rarer Than You Think

Most fans know about the tennis Grand Slam: winning the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open in the same calendar year.

But for something so well known, it is an exceedingly rare feat.

On the men’s side, only Don Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969 have achieved it. Few have come particularly close to matching them since. But this year, Novak Djokovic, with his win over the weekend at Wimbledon, is three-quarters of the way there.

Aside from Budge, Laver and Djokovic, only two other men, Jack Crawford in 1933 and Lew Hoad in 1956, won even the first three Slam events. (Both did nearly get their Slams in the U.S. Open, losing in the final, Crawford to Fred Perry and…