The four Grand Slam tournaments, also called the Majors, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, and public attention. They are: A singles player or doubles team that wins all four Slam tournaments in the same year is said to have achieved the Grand Slam. If the player or team 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, while winning the four majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics has been called a Golden Slam since 1988, when Steffi Graf accomplished that feat in a single calendar year. Used in golf since 1930, the term Grand Slam was first applied to tennis by New York Times columnist John Kieran according to Total Tennis, The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia by Bud Collins. In the chapter about 1933, Collins writes that after the Australian player Jack Crawford had won the Australian, French, and Wimbledon Championships, speculation arose about his chances in the U.S. Championships.

Kieran, who was a bridge player, wrote: "If Crawford wins, it would be something like scoring a grand slam on the courts, doubled and vulnerable." Crawford, an asthmatic, won two of the first three sets of his finals match against Fred Perry, then tired in the heat and lost the last two sets and the match. In 1982, the ITF redefined the Grand Slam as four consecutive victories that could span two consecutive years and put up a US$1 million bonus for any player who accomplished the feat. After Martina Navrátilová won her fourth consecutive major championship at the 1984 French Open, she was duly awarded the $1 million bonus in recognition of her achievement.

Navratilova would go on to win a total of six Grand Slam titles in a row but did not complete the calendar-year Grand Slam. This redefinition of the Grand Slam by the ITF was the source of great controversy in the tennis world and, in the years since, the ITF has distanced itself from the 1982 decision, seemingly reverting to the traditional calendar-year definition of the Grand Slam. No other sources consider this a true Grand Slam.

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