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Serena Williams lost her quest to complete the Grand Slam when losing in the semi-finals of the US Open, and her record slumped to 53-3.
Only three players have completed the calendar year Grand Slam. Here is a breakdown of their seasons.
Maureen Connolly (1953)
For the 1953 season Connolly hired a new coach, the Australian Davis Cup captain Harry Hopman, and entered all four Grand Slam tournaments for the first time.
Despite being only 18 years old she became the second tennis player after Don Budge (1938) to win the four major titles in the same year. She lost only one set in four tournaments, with Susan Partridge-Chatrier claiming the second set of the French Open quarter-final.
In total she played 22 matches in the majors and only dropped 84 games while completing eight love sets. In fact Connolly won the last nine Grand Slam singles tournaments she played, including 50 consecutive singles matches.
She defeated Julie Sampson Hayward in the Australian Open final and Doris Hart in the finals of the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open.
In her peak Connolly suffered a severe leg injury while horseback riding in Mission Valley. She never played competitive singles again. She died of cancer in 1969 at the age of 34.
Margaret Court (1970)
Margaret Court’s pathway to the Grand Slam was much tougher than Connolly’s. In the Wimbledon final she defeated Billie Jean King 14-12, 11-9 – the 46 games in the match and 26-game first set are both Wimbledon finals records.
Additionally she lost a set to Rosemary Casals in the US Open final.
However there was no question about Court’s prowess in 1970. She won 110 out of 116 matches and only dropped 13 games at the Australian Open. In the French Open final she easily defeated Helga Niessen Masthoff 6-2, 6-4.
Steffi Graf (1988)
Graf started 1988 by winning the Australian Open, defeating Chris Evert in the final 6–1, 7–6. Graf did not lose a set during the tournament and lost a total of only 29 games.
At the French Open, Graf successfully defended her title by defeating Natasha Zvereva 6–0, 6–0 in a 32-minute match. This was the shortest and most one-sided Grand Slam final ever and the first double bagel in a Major final since 1911. Zvereva, who had eliminated Martina Navratilova in the fourth round, won only thirteen points in the match.
Next came Wimbledon, where Navratilova had won six straight titles. Graf was trailing Navratilova in the final 7–5, 2–0 before winning the match 5–7, 6–2, 6–1.
At the US Open, Graf beat Gabriela Sabatini in a three-set final. Graf’s 1988 Grand Slam remains the only one in history completed on three surfaces (grass, clay, hard court), as all other Grand Slams in tennis history were achieved prior to the introduction of hard court at the US Open in 1978.
Graf then defeated Sabatini 6–3, 6–3 in the gold medal match at the Olympic Games in Seoul.
Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles title that year – at Wimbledon partnering Sabatini – and picked up a women’s doubles Olympic bronze medal.
In 1988 she won 72 out of 75 matches. Interestingly she went 75-2 in 1987 and 86-2 in 1989.
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