While the 36-year-old is sure to face some stiff competition at the grass-court event, in his current form, he is the ‘heavy favourite’ to win the title and bag a record – extending 24th Grand Slam title.
But there’s another honor on his radar as well – one that has not been achieved on the men’s side since 1969.
The calendar Grand Slam is an elusive feat. Only five players in the history of women’s and men’s singles have won the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in a single year, and it has been managed only three times since the start of the Open era in 1968.
Novak Djokovic is the last person to come closest to securing the golden achievement.
And the Serbian star would have secured it had he kept his nerve against Danlil Medvedev in the US Open final in 2021.
While some of the all-time greats of tennis have won all four grand slams numerous times over the course of their careers, only a select few have accomplished this feat in one calendar year. By a select few, we mean just 5 players.
Here’s a look at the 5 players who have won all 4 Grand Slams in a single calendar year.
Steffi Graf, 1988
German icon Steffi Graff was the last tennis player to be crowned with the Calendar Slam achievement back 1998.
Graff also went on to win the elusive Golden Slam by winning an Olympic Gold medal in the same year.
She would continue to add Grand Slams to her resume, winning four more between 1993 and 1994. She would retire in 1999, aged 30, while ranked as No. 3 in the world. What an amazing athlete.
Margaret Court, 1970
Margaret Court, Australian tennis player who dominated women’s competition in the 1960s. She won 66 Grand Slam championships, more than any other woman, and in 1970 became the second woman (after Maureen Connolly in 1953) to win the Grand Slam of tennis singles: Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, and the French Open titles in the same year.
She is also the only player to have ever won the Boxed Set not once, but twice. When a player wins a Boxed Set, this means that they have won all of the events in all of the slams, including the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.
Rod Laver, 1962 and 1969
Laver will always have a special place in history, because it is unlikely that any player will ever match his achievements.
Modern day greats like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have all desperately tried to win the four Majors in a single year, and have failed. It is staggering to imagine that not only did Laver do what they couldn’t, but he could do it twice.
Rod won 11 Grand Slam titles over the course of his career, including 2 Calendar Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969.
Maureen Connolly Brinker, 1953
In 1953, a young girl named Maureen Connolly won the Grand Slam of tennis. She was the first woman to ever capture this elusive crown by winning the Australian Championships, the French Championships, Wimbledon, and the United States Championships. She was only 18 years old when she accomplished this magnificent feat. From that time on, Maureen was known as the incomparable “Little Mo”.
Don Budge, 1937
Don Budge, byname of John Donald Budge, American tennis player who was the first to win the Grand Slam – i.e., the four major singles championships, Australia, France, Great Britain, and the United States – in one year.
To this day, he is still the only male singles competitor to win 6 consecutive Grand Slam titles, beginning in Wimbledon in 1937, and ending in the US, at the US Open in 1938.
Novak Djokovic is the favorite to win – can he face down the pressure and set the Grand Slam record? Or will someone (maybe Carlos Alcaraz) be able to stop him along the way? Will see.