The world’s most difficult sporting feats

Having won 33 consecutive grand slam matches and four consecutive grand slams, the last person anyone expected to end Serena Williams’ quest for a “calendar year grand slam” was unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci.

The world number 43 came from a set down on Saturday to stun Williams – who had already won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2015 – in the semi-finals of the US Open in what newspapers described as one of the biggest shocks in the history of tennis. But as Williams found out, there is a reason only six players have ever won all four grand slams in a single year.

It is truly one of the sporting world’s great feats and sits among an elite group of accomplishments considered almost mythical in nature. So what else belongs in this unique group?

China’s own Ding Junhui did something pretty special in 2013/14 when he won five snooker rankings titles in a single season – matching the record set by Stephen Hendry 23 years earlier. Swimmer Michael Phelps also set his name up in lights at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a record eight gold medals.

In baseball, batters dream of hitting a .400 average in a season although the task is easier said than done given that no Major League Baseball player has done so since 1941! Basketball? Wilt Chamberlain remains the only player to have scored 100 points in an NBA game – a feat he achieved in 1962 – although we’re particularly fond of Oscar Robertson’s record from a year earlier when he became the first and only player to average a triple-double – 10 or more points, rebounds and assists – through the entire season.

As far as team achievements go, no one before or since has matched the 1972 Miami Dolphins’ perfect NFL season – an accomplishment similarly revered in other football codes – while the quest to go undefeated through an English football season has only been achieved twice since the inaugural Football League way back in 1888/89!

But for the ultimate sporting accomplishment, we can’t go past golf’s own grand slam. To this day, American Bobby Jones (1930) remains the only player to have won all four major golf events in a single year and no one has done so in the modern era. That 22-year-old Jordan Spieth came so close in 2015 is quite phenomenal with wins at the Masters and US Open, fourth place at the British Open and runner-up at the US PGA.

Yet Williams’ effort this year has been just as remarkable. The 33-year-old came within a whisker of becoming the first person since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four tennis majors in a calendar year – the pressure simply getting the best of her with the finishing line in sight. Her chance might now have passed forever, but we suspect it will be a while before we even see three grand slam wins on the women’s tour in a single year. It truly is a brilliant feat.