All-time tennis records – men's singles, covers the period 1877 to present.
Before the beginning of the Open era in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tennis tournaments, including the four Grand Slams. Wimbledon, the oldest of the Majors, was founded in 1877, followed by the US Open in 1881, the French Open in 1891, and the Australian Open in 1905. Beginning in 1905 and continuing to the present day, all four majors have been played yearly, with the exception of the two World Wars and 1986 for the Australian Open. The Australian Open is the 1st Major of the year (January), followed by the French Open (May–June), Wimbledon (June–July), and US Open (August–September). There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. A player who wins all four current major tournaments, as a single or as part of a doubles team, in the same calendar year is said to have achieved the "Grand Slam". If the player wins all four consecutively, but not in the same calendar year, it is called a "Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam". Winning all four at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Grand Slam". Winning the four Majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics has been called a "Golden Slam" since 1988. Winning all four plus gold at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Golden Slam". Winning the Year-End Championship also having won a Golden Slam is referred to as a "Super Slam". Winning the four Majors in all three disciplines a player is eligible for – singles, doubles, and mixed doubles – is considered winning a "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles.
Prior to 1925 the Major tennis championships governed by the International Lawn Tennis Federation were the World Hard Court Championships, World Grass Court Championships and World Covered Court Championships.
Many top tennis players turned professional before the open era to play legally for prize money. They played in separate professional events and were banned from competing any of the four Grand Slam tournaments. They mostly competed on tours involving head-to-head competition, but also in professional tournaments as the biggest events on the pro tour. In addition to the head-to-head tours, there were the annual professional tournaments called "Championship tournaments" (known as Professional Majors) where the world's top professional players played. These tournaments held with a certain tradition and longevity.
The oldest of these three Professional Majors, or "Professional Grand Slams", was the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, played at a variety of different venues and on a variety of different surfaces, between 1925 and 1999. Between 1954 and 1962, the US Pro was played indoors in Cleveland and was called the World Professional Championships. The most prestigious of the three was generally the Wembley Championship. Played between 1934 and 1990, at the Wembley Arena in England, it was unofficially usually considered the world's championship until 1967. The third professional major was the French Pro Championship, played between 1934 and 1968, on the clay-courts of Roland Garros, apart from 1963–1967, when it was played on the indoor wood courts of Stade Coubertin.
The Open Era in tennis began in 1968, when the Grand Slam tournaments agreed to allow professional players to compete with amateurs. A professional tennis tour was created for the entire year, where everyone could compete in. This meant that the division that had existed for many years between these two groups had finally come to an end, which made the tennis world into one unified competition.
The first event to go "open" started on April 22, 1968 at The West Hants Club in Bournemouth, England, while the first Grand Slam tournament to do so was the 1968 French Open (Roland Garros) starting May 27. Records and titles from before this date are difficult to compare with those of the Open Era, since many of the best players were not allowed to participate in the respective tournaments.
These are some of the important records since the start of the first Grand Slam tournament held at The Wimbledon Championships.
All statistics are based on the data at the ATP World Tour website. and other available sources, though this is not a complete list due to the time period involved.
Active streaks and active players are in boldface.
Grand Slam tournament totals
active players in boldface
Grand Slam tournaments consecutive streaks
active streaks in boldface
Grand Slam tournaments non-consecutive streaks
Player skipped one or more Grand Slam tournaments during his streak
Grand Slam matches/finals streaks
Streaks can be across non-consecutive events
Four Consecutive
Three Consecutive
Two Consecutive
Three Non-Consecutive
Two Non-Consecutive
*indicates that the player won more than two major titles during that calendar year
Overall totals for early Professional Majors (French Pro, Wembley Pro & US Pro).
Overall totals for early ILTF Major's (WHCC, WCCC & WGCC).
Overall Major tournaments consist of the combined total of Grand Slam, Pro Slam and early ILTF Major (WHCC, WCCC & WGCC) titles.
Active players in boldface
Note: The draw of Pro majors was significantly smaller than the traditional Grand Slam tournaments; usually they only had 16 or even fewer professional players. Though they were the top 16 ranked players in the world at the time, this meant only four rounds of play instead of the modern six or seven rounds.
Note: Wood has not been used since 1970 and Carpet has not been used since 2009.
The following are tennis players who have won a particular tournament at least six times. Note: Grand Slam and Pro Slam tournaments in boldface
The following are tennis players who have won a particular tournament at least five times in a row.
See the Open Era records page since they have occurred entirely in that era.
See the Open Era records page since they have occurred entirely in that era.
(1896 –1924; 1988 – present)
(1877 – present)
1870s – Spencer Gore, 1877, Frank Hadow, 1878, & John Hartley, 1879
1880s – William Renshaw, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1889
1890s – Joshua Pim, 1890, 1891, 1893, 1894, 1895
1900s – Hugh Lawrence "Laurie" Doherty, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906
1910s – Anthony Wilding, 1911, 1912, 1913
1920s – Bill Tilden, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925
1930s – Ellsworth Vines, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1937 & Fred Perry, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937
1940s – Bobby Riggs, 1941, 1945, 1946, 1947
1950s – Pancho Gonzales, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959,
1960s – Rod Laver, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
1970s – Jimmy Connors, 1974, 1975, 1976 & Björn Borg, 1977, 1978, 1979
1980s – John McEnroe, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 & Ivan Lendl, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989
1990s – Pete Sampras, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
2000s – Roger Federer, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
2010s – Novak Djokovic, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015
Note: An undisputed number one player for the year (without another player regarded as number one) is shown in bold
(1877 – 1972 ; ATP/ITF Rankings, 1973 – present), years at No. 1 as of end 2016
as of end 2016
as of end 2016
