Which are the best-performing countries at each of the four Grand Slams?

Australian Open

However, that dominance came to an end in the 1980s as the tournament was shifted to the Melbourne Park, known as the Flinders Park back then, and there was a change in surface. Till 1987, the tournament was played on grass, but from 1988 it has been played on a hard court surface. Mark Edmondson (1976) was the last Australian to win the men’s singles title at the Australian Open, while Chris O’Neil was the last Australian woman to win the women’s singles title at Melbourne.

Margaret Court won three titles in a row at the start of the open era, but no one has matched the dominance shown by Serena Williams, who has won the title on six occasions.

French Open

This is the only Grand Slam where the USA’s ascendancy has been challenged, especially in the men’s half of the tournament. In fact, other than Chris Evert, very few Americans have made the clay court their own. On the other hand, Spanish players, from Rafael Nadal to Juan Carlos Ferrero to Albert Costa to Carlos Moya to Sergi Bruguera and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, have set the Stade Roland Garros on fire. Even the Swedish duo of Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander have had superb records in Paris.

Unlike in the Australian Open, France’s domination in this tournament came to an end well before we entered the open era. After Marcel Bernard’s victory in 1946, the French supporters had to wait till 1983 before they could see another one of their own lifting the title in the form of Yannick Noah. Since then, Henri Laconte is the only other Frenchman who came close to winning it, when he lost in the 1988 final to Mats Wilander. In the women’s singles, Mary Pierce is the only Frenchwoman to have won the title (2000) in the Open era.

Wimbledon has been one of those tournaments which has seen sustained periods of dominance from a lot of players in the open era. In the initial stages, it was Rod Laver and John Newcombe, followed by Bjorn Borg who took over in 1976. Bjorg won five titles in a row before John McEnroe, Boris Becker, and Stefan Edberg stamped their class on the event. Pete Sampras won seven titles between 1993 and 2000 before he handed over the baton to Roger Federer. Now, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are fighting over that same baton.

Martina Navratilova is still leading the pack with nine singles titles between 1978 and 1990 before Steffi Graf took over. The Williams sisters have 12 singles titles among themselves and have turned it into a family trophy since the turn of the new millennium.

US Open

Like in most of the Grand Slams, the Americans have a good record in their own backyard. However, since Andy Roddick’s victory in 2003, their dominance has waned in the men’s half of the draw – which in the hindsight is only a reflection of the shift in power to the European nations in the last decade. We have seen seven different winners in the last nine editions of the US Open with Stan Wawrinka shocking Novak Djokovic in the final last year.

In the women’s half, we have witnessed two surprise winners in Flavia Pennetta and Angelique Kerber in the last two editions, which had ended Serene Williams’s dominance in the tournament. Serena needs one more win to break the record set by Chris Evert of six US Open singles titles in the open era. It is difficult to bet against her from doing so, as the nation continues its search for the next Sampras or the next Serena who can reinstate USA’s hegemony in the sport.

Federer and Nadal are at the fag end of their careers, while Djokovic is not looking all that invincible anymore. Andy Murray might have toppled Djokovic from the top, but he is unlikely to recreate the same aura of invincibility that the Serbian, or Federer and Nadal before him, have had. His stay at the top is unlikely to be long. It will be more like a passing blip. In the women’s circuit, Serena Williams is 35, and she is being challenged by the likes of Angelique Kerber, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Simona Halep – and none of the trio have been consistent enough.