“He already won 4 Slams in a row” Andy Murray appreciates Novak Djokovic’s attempt at achieving the Calendar Slam


“He already won 4 Slams in a row” Andy Murray appreciates Novak Djokovic’s attempt at achieving the Calendar Slam

Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic

Former World No. 1 Andy Murray recently talked about Novak Djokovic‘s attempt at achieving the very difficult Calendar Slam, winning all 4 Grand Slam titles in a single calendar year. Apart from Rod Laver in 1969, no man has ever achieved this historic feat and since Steffi Graf‘s Golden Slam, winning the Olympics Singles gold and all 4 Slams, no other tennis player has achieved it.

Novak fell at the final hurdle as he was unfortunate to lose in the finals of the 2021 US Open against World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev ending his Grand Slam season this year with an outstanding record of 27-1 as he won all 3 previous Slams of the season starting from the 2021 Australian Open, 2021 French Open and then the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.

Speaking about his attempt, old foe and fellow member of the ‘Big-4‘, Andy Murray praised Djokovic and talked about whether the Calendar Slam can ever be achieved. “Making it is possible, Nole was only one match away from doing it. Serena probably felt the same as Djokovic when she lost the semifinal in 2015. Anyway he already won 4 slams in a row, not in the same year but he did it,” said Murray.

Murray pointed at Novak winning 4 consecutive Slams in 2015-16, winning the 2015 Wimbledon and the 2015 US Open and continuing his form ahead, he went on to win the 2016 Australian Open and the 2016 French Open which was later dubbed as the ‘Nole Slam’. Serena achieved a similar feat in the 2002-03 season winning the French Open, Wimbledon, US Open in 2002 and the 2003 Australian Open which was dubbed as ‘Serena Slam‘.

This was the 3rd season where Novak Djokovic won 3 Grand Slam titles in a season

Novak Djokovic with his US Open 2021 Runners Up Trophy
Novak Djokovic with his US Open 2021 Runners Up Trophy

While Murray himself had just 3 Grand Slam titles to his name, he saw his fellow Big-4 members, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic each had at least 1 season where they won 3 Grand Slam titles but failed to achieve the Calendar Slam.

While Nadal had a 3-Slam season in 2010 missing out on the Australian Open that year, Federer achieved it in 2004, 2006 and the 2007 season missing out on French Open on all 3 occasions. Novak had a similar fate as Federer in the 2011 and 2015 seasons where he won all 3 Slams except for the French Open but this time it was the US Open title he missed out on.

If Djokovic can do it once again will be a question for tennis fans but they would need to wait till the next season when Grand Slam action resumes at the 2022 Australian Open.

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Also Read: “It will be hard but I will never say that it is impossible” Roger Federer speaks about Novak Djokovic’s Calendar Slam attempt