Novak Djokovic (36, Serbia, 5th in the world) defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas (25, Greece, 4th) in the Australian Open men’s singles final held at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 29th of last month after a bloody battle of 2 hours and 56 minutes. They defeated them 3-0 (6-3 7-6<7-4> 7-6<7-5>). Djokovic has reached the Australian Open final 10 times, winning all of them. He increased his record of most Australian Open championships to 10, and tied shoulders with Rafael Nadal (37, Spain, 2nd place) for the most wins in this category while holding his 22nd major championship trophy in his arms. It was the first time in seven months since June of last year that he regained the No. 1 spot in the world rankings. In particular, in men’s singles, he won 10 Australian Opens, 2 French Opens, 7 Wimbledon, and 3 US Opens, tying with Nadal for the most Grand Slam titles with 22.

The word grand slam is a foreign word that has already appeared in the standard Korean dictionary. The dictionary describes it as ‘a player winning all four title games in one year in golf or tennis, or hitting a home run in baseball’. The word grand slam is a combination of ‘grand’ meaning ‘great’ and ‘slam’ the noun meaning ‘to hit’. Literally translated, it can be said that it means to hit big. It is considered a suitable coined word to emphasize that it has won all major competitions. According to the English Dictionary, etc., the etymology of the grand slam came from a term meaning ‘overwhelming victory’ in which all 13 cards were won in the bridge game, which was originally a card game. See the 86th episode of this corner, ‘Why does golf say ‘Grand Slam’?)

Since then, the Grand Slam has been widely used in other sports to mean something special and powerful. Paul Dixon’s Dictionary of Baseball describes that American baseball used the 1929 grand slam to mean a grand slam or to score many runs at once. In golf, Bobby Jones of the United States first used the term Grand Slam in 1930 when he won all four tournaments, including the British Open, US Open, British and US Amateur. In tennis, the word began to be used in 1938 when Don Budge (1915-2000) of the United States won all four major tournaments, Wimbledon, France, Australia, and the US Open.

The word Grand Slam is used not only in sports but also in military and cultural terms. The powerful bomb used by the Royal Air Force during World War II was called the ‘Grand Slam’ and was also used as a cocktail term.

In the Korean media, this term appears since the 1960s. Chosun Ilbo, August 24, 1962, ‘Do you know? The world’s number one article said, “The largest bomb ever used was the “Grand Slam” dropped by the British Air Force during the “U=Boat” landing operation in 1942 (2) It was one thousand six hundred and sixty tubes. For experiments, five thousand and seventy-seven were tested by the US Air Force at “Murok” in “California” in 1949. It was a coffin,’ he introduced. The Chosun Ilbo, June 22, 1972, article titled ‘Nicklaus’ record of 13 wins, challenge for 4 gold medals’ said, ‘Jack Nicklaus won the US Open, raising the total prize money this year to $186,051. Maintaining the lead—He won two world titles together with the previous Masters, and won the Grand Slam (four crowns) by aiming for Jeon Young and U.S. Pros. He has now achieved 13 major tournament victories (Masters 4, Jeon Young 2, All U.S. Pro 2, All U.S. Ama 2) Holy) set a tie record with that of Bobby Jones’. 안전놀이터

Inbee Park of Korea Women’s Golf won the Ricoh British Women’s Open, the fourth major tournament of the LPGA Tour season in August 2015, and achieved the ‘Career Grand Slam’. Her playing career meant that she became a career grand slammer. With her seven major wins, Inbee Park became the seventh career Grand Slammer of all time, behind Pat Bradley, Julie Inkster, Annika Sorenstam, Louis Suggs, Kari Webb, and Mickey Wright. If she wins only the Evian tournament, she could become the second super grand slammer after Kari Webb, but there is no news about her yet. Inbi Park, who won the 2012 Evian Tournament, has not been able to capture her championship trophy since the Evian Tournament was added as a major event the following year. However, she proved herself to be the best female golfer of her time by winning a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, when women’s golf was adopted as an Olympic event after 112 years.