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Grand Slam overview: the 4 majors, dates and surfaces
In short
There are four Grand Slams per season: Australian Open (hardcourt), Roland Garros (clay), Wimbledon (grass) and the US Open (hardcourt). Men play best-of-5, women best-of-3, and since March 2022 all four use the same deciding-set tiebreak to 10 points. In Belgium, the main coverage of all four Slams sits with the paid Eurosport service, though Roland Garros also gets some free coverage via RTBF for French-speaking viewers.
The four Grand Slams of the season
The tennis season has four tournaments that stand above all the others: the Grand Slams. They follow the same order every year:
| Grand Slam | Period | Location | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | January | Melbourne (Rod Laver Arena) | Hardcourt |
| Roland Garros | May-June | Paris | Clay |
| Wimbledon | June-July | London | Grass |
| US Open | August-September | New York | Hardcourt |
Australian Open: the opener of the season. Roland Garros: the only Grand Slam played on clay. Wimbledon: the oldest Grand Slam, and the only one played on grass, with a mandatory all-white dress code. US Open: the finale of the Grand Slam season. Together, these four tournaments account for most of the prestige in the tennis calendar: winning a Grand Slam doesn't just carry the highest prestige, it also earns the most ranking points of the entire season.
Surfaces: clay, grass and hardcourt
Of the four Grand Slams, two are played on hardcourt (Australian Open and US Open), one on clay (Roland Garros) and one on grass (Wimbledon). That surface has a big influence on how a match unfolds.
Grass: the fastest surface
The ball stays low and quick off the bounce, which favours serve-and-volley play and short rallies.
Clay: the slowest surface
The ball bounces higher and slower, which stretches rallies out and makes physical endurance at least as important as raw power.
Hardcourt: the "neutral" middle ground
Faster than clay but slower than grass, with a reliable, even bounce that makes it the most "neutral" of the three surfaces.
That difference in surface partly explains why some players perform far better at one Grand Slam than another: a player with a strong physical base and plenty of patience often thrives on clay, while a player with a big serve and fast first strikes benefits from grass.
Format: best-of-3, best-of-5 and the tiebreak
At all four Grand Slams, the men play best-of-5 sets (first to win 3 sets) and the women play best-of-3 sets (first to win 2 sets). That difference means men's matches at the Grand Slams generally run longer than women's matches.
Since the joint reform of March 2022, all four Grand Slams use the same system for the deciding set: at 6-6, a tiebreak to 10 points is played. The Australian Open was already ahead of the curve with a similar system from 2019; the other three Slams each had their own rule before that. You'll find more detail on scoring within a game and how the tiebreak works on the page about tennis rules and scoring.
What makes each Grand Slam unique
Despite sharing the same basic rules, each Grand Slam has its own character.
Alongside the four Grand Slams, fans also follow the big Masters 1000 tournaments such as Cincinnati, which carry fewer ranking points but still count as important preparation for the Grand Slams.
Structurally, though, all four main tournaments are identical: for both men and women, the singles draw consists of 128 players, of whom the 32 highest-ranked receive a seed. Seeds 1 and 2 are always placed in different halves of the draw, so they can meet no earlier than the final, while seeds 5 through 8 are split across the remaining quarters by draw and so can meet one of the top four seeds no earlier than the quarter-finals. Players not admitted directly into the main draw can still claim one of the last spots through the qualifying tournament.
The Career Grand Slam and the Golden Slam
Career Grand Slam
Anyone who wins all four Grand Slams at least once over the course of their career, even spread across different years, achieves the Career Grand Slam. In the Open Era of men's tennis, that has been achieved by, among others, Rod Laver (1969), Andre Agassi (1999), Roger Federer (2009), Rafael Nadal (2010), Novak Djokovic (2016) and Carlos Alcaraz, who completed the Career Grand Slam in 2026 at the Australian Open, becoming the youngest player ever to do so.
Golden Slam
An even rarer feat is the Golden Slam: winning all four Grand Slams together with an Olympic singles gold medal. Steffi Graf remains, to date, the only player, man or woman, to achieve that in a single calendar year, in 1988. A career Golden Slam, where the four Grand Slams and the Olympic title can be spread across an entire career, has been achieved by several players, including Andre Agassi (1999), Rafael Nadal (2010) and Novak Djokovic (2024, after his Olympic title in Paris).
The Grand Slams for Belgian viewers
The four Grand Slams are not all shown on the same channel in Belgium.
| Grand Slam | Channel in Belgium | Paid / free |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | Eurosport (Max/discovery+) | Paid |
| Roland Garros | Eurosport (Max/discovery+); partly free via RTBF (French-language) | Paid, partial free option |
| Wimbledon | Eurosport (Max/discovery+) | Paid |
| US Open | Eurosport (Max/discovery+) | Paid |
All four Grand Slams are shown in Belgium mainly through Eurosport (Warner Bros. Discovery, Max/discovery+), behind a paywall. Roland Garros is a partial exception: RTBF also carries free coverage for French-speaking viewers via its Auvio platform. Broadcast rights can change from year to year, so it is worth checking the official channel listings closer to each tournament.
The Napoleon Sports app
Follow the Grand Slam calendar on the go with the Napoleon Sports app: check the latest info and browse the tennis betting markets from your smartphone. Available features and markets may vary by device or app version.
Frequently asked questions
How many Grand Slams are there per year?
Four: the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open, in that order, spread across the season.
Which Grand Slam is played on clay?
Only Roland Garros. The Australian Open and the US Open are played on hardcourt, Wimbledon on grass.
Do men and women play the same number of sets at the Grand Slams?
No. Men play best-of-5 sets, women play best-of-3 sets, at all four Grand Slams.
Which Grand Slam is free to watch in Belgium?
None of the four is fully free to air in Belgium: all four are shown mainly via the paid Eurosport service. Roland Garros is a partial exception, with some free coverage via RTBF (Auvio) for French-speaking viewers.
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