When Don Budge scored the first grand slam sweep in 1938, Allison Danzig of The New York Times attributed Budge’s victories to his “murderous backhand and volcanic serve.”
The feat of winning the four major international tennis championships in one year, Danzig wrote, amounted to “a grand slam that invites comparison with the accomplishments of Bobby Jones in golf.”
Oddly, the concept had already spread to sports from contract bridge, in which players score a grand slam by bidding for and winning all 13 tricks in a hand.
It was another New York Times reporter, John Kieran, composing a Sports of The Times column on Sept.