Three Grand Slam tournament titles in a year. Connors did that too?

Players who have won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year.

Men’s singles

• Jack Crawford
  • 1933: Australian, French, & Wimbledon Championships
• Fred Perry
  • 1934: Australian, Wimbledon, & U.S. Championships
• Tony Trabert
  • 1955: French, Wimbledon, & U.S. Championships
• Lew Hoad
  • 1956: Australian, French, & Wimbledon Championships
• Ashley Cooper
  • 1958: Australian, Wimbledon, & U.S. Championships
• Roy Emerson
  • 1964: Australian, Wimbledon, & U.S. Championships
• Jimmy Connors
  • 1974: Australian, Wimbledon, & US Open (He and others were banned from the 1974 French Open^[7])
• Mats Wilander
  • 1988: Australian, French, & US Open
• Roger Federer
  • 2004: Australian, Wimbledon, & US Open
  • 2006: Australian, Wimbledon, & US Open
  • 2007: Australian, Wimbledon, & US Open
• Rafael Nadal
  • 2010: French Open, Wimbledon, & US Open

Most consecutive Grand Slam tournament titles. Can Nadal match it?

Men’s singles

Don Budge (6): (1937 Wimbledon through the 1938 U.S. Championships).

Slam break-up among greats.

Player	AO	FO	Wimby	USO	Total
Laver	3	2	4	2	11
Borg	0	6	5	0	11
Lendl	2	3	0	3	8
Connors	1	0	2	5	8
Agassi	4	1	1	2	8
Federer	4	1	6	5	16
Nadal	1	5	2	1	9
Sampras	2	0	7	5	14

My goats have shorter beard and fewer ugly neck wrinkles. Geeeezzzzz!!!!!



“When will humans learn that size doesn’t matter?”

Remember that line in ‘Men in black’ when the whole freaking galaxy was reduced to fit some pendant hanging from a cat’s neck?

That message resonates at equal decibel quality with tennis players attempting to hit the ball as hard as they can in an effort to pass their opponent. How long will it take for them to freaking realize that power, strength and size does NOT matter? That has to be the FIRST lesson Federer’s game is oozing with – in plain freaking view.

Federer is clearly one of the weakest player, in terms of brute strength, at least among the top 20 in the world. Heck, I bet even Serena can beat him in an arm wrestling match. But the power he generates, from his forehand specially, appears equal to what all the top 20 manage – combined. Granted Nadal has that top spin excuse but most others including Delpo are employing the wrong combination of body parts to send the ball over the net with the most speed they can manage. In the process they are not only increasing the possibilities of injury and illness exponentially they are also adding unnecessary mileage to shorten their career in the long run.

The humongous divide that so conspicuously exists between Federer and most everybody else who plays professional tennis today in terms of fitness and an injury free career is ample proof that Federer’s way is THE way to go. And what is that?

Could it summed up as hitting the ‘sweet spot’? You freaking bet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If most know this what’s the freaking problem duplicating it? Could it be the lack of confidence from the time they pick up the racket for the first time in making the ball cross over the net AND fall within the rectangle? That lack of conviction produces the need for top spin and all other BS to dance around the sweet spot instead of taking the bull by the horn and force it to pay what you want – on your terms.

Delpo gets away with it because of the height but unless you hit the sweet spot even that leverage is not going to get it done in the long run. Heck it didn’t work even in the short freaking run. The strategy is so powerful that it saves the entire body not just your wrist or knee or shoulder to transform it into a well oiled machine destined to deliver – forever – without time outs.

Why it’s in Federer’s interest that Nadal completes a ‘full’ tennis career under given conditions.

Heard of Seles? Or Graf? Or asterisk?

With Nadal already owning a career Slam, Olympics, H2H advantage among other accolades, he is as close to Seles in many respects as is humanly possible, don’t you think? Very few even question the fact that Nadal totally owns Federer – on ALL surfaces – quite similar to what many felt about Seles vis-a-vis Graf. If Nadal was to blow up his knees or whatever now and abruptly end his career, Federer’s GOAT status will always carry that stain to drain it of most, if not all, of the juice.

Instead of Federer praying for Nadal to stop he should be happy if Nadal completes the whole cycle as best he can and fall short of the target that way. Currently the likelihood of Nadal equalling Federer’s 16 Slams is NOT as high as is the probability of his knees falling apart. And that cannot be good for Federer if the precedent set is any indication of where a perfectly crafted career can end up – in the history books.

While it’s inconceivable to think of Nadal playing at this level in his early thirties given his track record, reaching the age of at least 28 should suffice to sufficiently eliminate the ‘Seles’ component from the equation to hand Federer a clean bill of health – careerwise.

Maybe that’s already been incorporated in the plans Tony and the team has drafted – as a last resort. If it seems impossible to equal 16 at some stage, they might pull out this ace to gain ground while killing two birds with one stone: Federer’s stain and Nadal’s ‘what if’.

Photos.

HANDOUT RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE AND EDITORIAL SALES – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / HO / VENETIAN MACAU” Handout photo taken and released by Venetian Macau Limited on September 26, 2010 at the Venetian hotel and casino in Macaun shows (L-R): Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, Robin Soderling of Sweden, and David Ferrer of Spain. The players were taking part in the Venetian Macau Tennis Showdown 2010 event in which the players compete in a series of ‘rapid-fire’ matches. AFP PHOTO / HO / VENETIAN MACAU LIMITED