Records

It has been said that records are meant to be broken. In sports ,record what we thought 50 years back can not be broken has been broken. Let us talk about cricket, who would have thought that Gary Sobers’s year 1958 record of  scoring 365 runs in an inning will be broken, but in the 1990s this record was broken 3 times and current record is in the name of Brian Lara who has scored 400 runs in an inning.

But today I am not talking about cricket records, it is about some rare tennis records which have been set up during last few decades, and experts say that these records might remain unbeaten

1. Winning all the Grand Slams ( Australian open, French open, Wimbeldon and US Open) and also winning Olympics Gold in  Singles have been achieved by very few players. Players like Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi have  done this, but one player Steffi Graff have achieved a unique feat and ie she won  all the Grand slams in the year 1988 ( which is called Calendar year slam) plus the same year she won the Olympic Gold Medal in Singles in Seoul Olympics 1988. Her feat has been named ‘The Golden Slam’ and it might be really impossible for any player in future to break this, as already 3 decades are passed after this record was set by her.
2. As described earlier winning all the grand slams is a great achievement in modern tennis, but winning all the grand slams in a calendar year is a very rare feat and do it twice in your career is the rarest of rare feat which can be achieved by a player. Only player to do this is Rod Laver of Australia. He achieved this feat first time in the year 1962 as a amateur player and repeated the feat in 1969 in the open era, after the tennis was thrown open to professional players also. After 1969 except Steffi Graff no other player (male or female) has achieved this feat even once. So this record set by Rod Laver will never be broken in future.
3. This record is in the name of Martina Navratilova who has won in her career 59 Grand Slam titles (in Women’s Singles, Women’s Double and Mixed Doubles), a rare feat. Now a days  most of the player hardly play doubles tournaments and mixed doubles are generally played in Grand slams only. She won 18 singles, 31 Women’s doubles and 10 mixed doubles Grand slam titles. Along with these slams she has won 167 career Singles titles and 177 career doubles titles. Can you think any player in future can break any of the record held by Martina ? I do not think any one can do it.
4. Rafeal Nadal has won the French Open ( played on Clay surface) till date 11 times, do not know how many more he will win as he is still active on tennis circuit  and already won 17 grand slams over all. He has also won tournaments played in Monte Carlo and Barcelona also 11 times each, both these tournaments are also played on Clay surface. Margaret Court has also win 11 Australian Open titles, but she won 7 of her title as amateur and 4 in open era.
5. Chris Evert has won at least one Grand slam title every year for 13 years continuously, from 1974 to 1986. No other player has come closer to this record. Closest was Steffi Graff who won at least one grand slam continuously for 10 years..

Some other records which could be broken are- Margaret Court record of 24 Grand Slam singles title, Serena Williams has already won 23 titles, she is trying her level best to beat this record bit in the last 3 Grand slams, she has lost in the finals. Second record which could be broken in near future is Roger Federar’s record of winning 2o Grand slam Singles titles, Rafeal Nadal has already won 17 titles and still playing and currently he is world no.2, also Novak Djacovic who has won 15 titles, who is still going very strong by winning last 3 Grand slams, and is currently no.1 in the world. And who knows Roger Federar might win more grand slams.

Waiting for your views/feed backs/comments on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, Maharashtra