Australian Open

The first Grand Slam of the year is the Australian Open. This tournament has been staged in several cities in Australia and New Zealand, but it is nowadays held in Melbourne. The Australian Open is played on the hard courts at Melbourne Park. The surface is called Plexicushion Prestige and enhances a better depth perception of the ball, a greater contrast between the surface and the ball, and the ball’s visibility because of its color. Another benefit of this surface is the thin top layer that retains less heat and has more consistency. The winners of the tournament this year are the former number one players Roger Federer and Serena Williams; they both won a trophy cup called ‘Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup’ for the women and ‘Norman Brookes Challenge Cup’ for the men. Roger Federer won the Australian Open for the fourth time in his career and is together with Andre Agassi the winner of most singles titles at this tournament. Serena Williams won the Australian Open for the fifth time in her career and is therefore the winner of the most singles titles for women. The prize money for the winners, both women and men, is $2.2 million.

Roland Garros

Roland Garros, also called ‘The French Open’, is one of the four most famous tennis tournaments in the world. It is the second Grand Slam tournament of the year and takes place in Paris. The tournament is the only Grand Slam held on a clay court. The red clay court is a slow surface, which makes it difficult for players to hit a winner. The bounce of the balls is high and slow, which is why the points are long and intense. Roland Garros is also known as the most physically demanding tournament. The best ground strokes on clay court are with topspin: heavy topspin balls causes the opponent to get pushed far behind the baseline and at this point the dropshot becomes very effective to win the point. The trophy for the men’s is called ‘Coupe des Mousquetaires’ and ‘Coupe Suzanne Lenglen’ for the women. Only the best players in the world are able to compete in this tournament. The person with the most victories at the French Open in history is Bjorn Borg; he won this Grand Slam 6 times. The most successful player recently at Roland Garros is Rafael Nadal. Chris Evert is the woman who won the most titles on Roland Garros as many as 7 times. Currently, Justin Henin is the most successful female player of this Grand Slam.

I went to Roland Garros in 2009 with my best friend. We saw one of the first rounds of the tournament between Ljubicic and Ferero. The match lasted almost 4 hours--it was unbelievable to see how fantastic they can play tennis. I have never seen Nadal or Federer, but I can not imagine how well they will play!

Wimbledon

Wimbledon is the oldest tennis tournament in the world. It takes place in Wimbledon, a suburb of London. Wimbledon has been organized since 1877 and is the only Grand Slam tournament that requires the players to wear white clothes. It is the third Grand Slam of the year and the only one held on rye grass courts. The centre court and court no 1 are only in use for this tournament, the other courts are also used for other events. The centre court has since 2009 the possibility to cover the court with a retractable roof to prevent the matches for delay of rain. The most successful male player in this tournament in history is Pete Sampras: he almost won 7 titles in a row from 1993 till 2000, except 1996. The most successful female player, called Martina Navratilova, won 9 titles at Wimbledon. The trophy for the women’s finalist a silver salver called: ‘Venus Rosewater Dish’ and for the men’s finalist a silver cup called: ‘All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Championship to the World.’ The winners from this year are Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams.

The US Open

The US Open, also called United State Open Tennis Championships, is the last Grand Slam of the year. It is located in Forest Hills, New York at the West Side Tennis Club. This Grand Slam has the surface hard court, also called DecoTurf surface. It is a very fast surface with a very low bounce, which makes the points fast and short as well. The US Open is the only one that has tie-breaks in the final set of the match, which is the fifth set for males and the third set for females. All the other Grand Slams continue playing in the final set until there is a difference of two games. Believe it or not, but the total prize money is $16 million. The men’s and women’s winner of the tournament get $1.7 million each! Can you imagine how rich Federer, Nadal, Williams, Henin and all the other Grand Slam winners are?! The current winners of the US Open are Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters. The best male players of this tournament are three men: Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, and Jimmy Conners. All three men won the US Open 5 times. Federer is the only one who won 5 times in a row, from 2004 till 2008. It was Chris Evert for the women’s who won the tournament 6 times.

Best female tennis players in de world

The number one player of the world at the moment is Caroline Wozniacki, and Vera Zvonareva is the number two player of the world. The women’s ranking list is very inconsistent because it changes very often, especially the number one position. That is why I am going to talk about the best female players of the world the past few years, who are Justin Henin and Serena Williams, currently number 12 and number 4 on the WTA singles rank list.

 

Justin Henin was born in Belgium and is 28 years old. She went pro in 1999 and earned more than $20.8 million through the years of her tennis career. She won 43 WTA singles titles, including the golden medal at the Olympics in 2004 and 7 Grand Slams. She won 3 out the 4 Grand Slams and so did Serena and Venus Williams, but Henin is the only one who played the finals of all the Grand Slams in one year. Henin’s game is very solid. She has an amazing serve and she is able to hit every single shot with her single-handed backhand. Her speedy footwork makes her defensive game very good and she can dictate the game with her aggressive forehand. She retired in May 2008 when she still had the number 1 ranking on the WTA ranking list. It was a big surprise for everyone, but she wanted to focus on her tennis school and charity. In September 2009, she returned to the tennis world because she was inspired by the first victory of Roger Federer at Roland Garros and the victory of Kim Clijster at the US Open after Clijster’s return.

 

Serena Williams is one of the Williams sisters. She was born in Michigan and is 29 years old. Serena reached the number one position on the WTA ranking list 5 times. Currently, she is the number 4 in singles and number 5 in doubles with her sister Venus. She won 13 Grand Slam singles titles and two Olympic golden medals. The prize money she won is unbelievable, more than $32.7 million, which makes her the richest female athlete in history. Her game is powerful and for the greater part from the baseline. She likes to take control of the points from the back, starting with a very hard serve and ending it with strong groundstrokes. The strength in her forehand, and backhand as well, makes it very difficult for the opponent to take control over a point. She likes to take the balls down the line or with a sharp angle crosscourt outside the court. Her game is very offensive and impressive to see, but her defense is also good.

Best male tennis players of the world

First I would like to talk about Rafael Nadal, also called Rafa. He was born in Majorca, Spain and he is 24 years old. He is left handed and is the number one tennis player in the world nowadays. His nickname is ‘The King Of Clay’ because he is the best tennis player on clay courts of all times. He won 42 single titles that include 9 Grand Slam titles, 18 ATP tournaments and the Olympics in 2008. He also participated in the Spain Davis Cup Team. He was a great contribution for the team and therefore they won the finals three times. His prize money is amazing; he has won 33 million dollars in total! After Andre Agassi, he is the second male player that has achieved the ‘Career Grand Slam’ by winning the four Grand Slam tournaments and the golden medal at the Olympics. His game is mainly from the baseline with heavy top-spin shots. He has a very athletic body and with his speedy footwork, he is able to make it very difficult for his opponent to finish the point.

My personal favorite is Roger Federer. He was born in Switzerland and is 29 years old. He dominated the men’s tennis world from 2004 till halfway through 2008; he was the number one tennis player of the world 285 weeks in a row and since October this year he is the number two on the ATP ranking list. He conquered the ‘Career Grand Slam’ by winning all the Grand Slam tournaments after Nadal and Agassi. He has in total 65 singles titles including 16 Grand Slam titles and the golden medal at the Olympics. These results gave him the name ‘Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.’ You would not believe it, but this man won almost $58 million of prize money and is considered the best male tennis player in history. He is an all-around player; he can play on every surface and is comfortable on the baseline as well as the net. Every shot he makes is very solid, which makes him so incredibly successful.

Nadal and Federer are real opponents of each other. Nadal is five years younger than Federer, but they have been the number 1 and 2 of the world since 2005. The inter-club contests are 14-7 for Nadal, therefore he is the only player in the world who has a positive inter-club contest score against Federer.