Since its beginnings in 1877, Grand Slam tennis title wins have been the pinnacle of the game for the ATP circuit. But which nation has produced the most winners over the last 166 years?
Join us to learn which countries have won the most men’s singles Grand Slam tennis matches:
5) Sweden (26)
With 26 titles from a total of five players, Sweden ranks fifth all-time for the most men’s Grand Slam singles titles.
Bjorn Borg has made the biggest contribution to Swedish success, having won 11 major championships (42% of Sweden’s total), all at Wimbledon or Roland Garros between 1974 and 1981.
Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg, who really competed against one another in the 1985 Australian Open final, are in close battle for Borg. Edberg beat Wilander to win his first major.
Wilander and Edberg won all four Grand Slam tournaments for Sweden in the same year, two years later in 1987, to complete the clean sweep.
Thomas Johansson and Sven Davidson round up the Swedish Grand Slam honour roll.
4) Spain (35)
Only 11 men’s Grand Slam championships had been won by Spain prior to May 2005. Even though this number is still extremely respectable, it appears incredibly different from their current total of 35.
Rafael Nadal, who at the age of 19 at Roland Garros won his first major championship, is much to thank for this. Since then, he has dominated the Grand Slam tennis singles competitions, winning the second-most major singles titles ever (22) and completing the career Grand Slam twice.
While he has said that 2024 might be his final year, you can never rule him out of adding to his total. His 22 titles also include a record 14 Roland Garros victories.
Manuel Santana, who won Roland Garros in 1961 and went on to win another championship in Paris three years later as well as a single Wimbledon and US Open, was the first ever Spanish Grand Slam singles champion.
Sergi Bruguera (2), Carlos Moya (1), Albert Costa (1), Andres Gimeno (1), Manuel Orantes (1), and Juan Carlos Ferrero (1), who is in fact the coach of the new face of Spanish tennis, Carlos Alcaraz, are other major singles champions for Spain.
Two-time major singles champion Alcaraz became the youngest world No. 1 in history by winning his maiden Grand Slam at the age of 18 at the 2022 US Open.
The now-20-year-old went on to win Wimbledon this year, where he defeated Novak Djokovic for the first time in ten years.
3) Great Britain (48)
Even though they have won just three of the tournaments since 1937, Great Britain ranks third overall in the number of men’s Grand Slam winners.
The first major competition was Wimbledon, which debuted in 1877 and was won by a British player each year until 1907.
This was because there would be a home champion because the competition was virtually completely made up of British players at the start of the Amateur Era.
The first major championship won by a British player outside of the country was the first Roland Garros, which was played in 1891 and was won by a guy by the name of H.Briggs (full name unknown), who lived in Paris.
With eight major titles won between 1933 and 1936, Fred Perry was the most successful player during this Amateur Era of British supremacy.
Since that time, Andy Murray is the sole male British champion in the Grand Slam singles title. Prior to won the US Open in 2012 and going on to achieve historic home victories at Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016, the Scot had lost four straight major finals.
2) Australia (100)
Similar facts apply to Australia, which dominated its national major tournament up until the start of the Open Era in 1968 but has since produced numerous major champions.
34 different players from Australia have won 100 Grand Slam singles championships, with Roy Emerson (12) leading the way with six Australian Open victories and two victories at the other three majors.
Following Emerson, Rod Laver (11), who shared his major championships between the Amateur and Open eras, achieved something unique at Grand Slam tournaments.
Only two men have ever completed the Calendar Slam, which occurs when a player wins all four major tournaments in the same calendar year, but Laver did so twice, in 1962 and 1969.
Lleyton Hewitt (US Open 2001 and Wimbledon 2002), Pat Rafter (US Open 1997 and 1998), and Pat Cash (Wimbledon 1987) are other more recent Australian Grand Slam champions.
1) United States of America (147)
With 147 titles over 49 players, the USA is clearly in the lead when it comes to men’s singles Grand Slam winners.
The American with the most titles is Pete Sampras (14), who also led the men’s Grand Slam singles rankings for eight years before Roger Federer passed him.
Similar to Great Britain and Australia, the United States has won many major championships thanks to its dominance in its home majors throughout the Amateur Era.
American dominance at the US Open led to 66 of the first 75 event victories; but, like Great Britain and Australia, their rise to popularity has significantly halted.
Andy Roddick, who defeated the aforementioned Juan Carlos Ferrero to do so, became the first American man to win a major singles championship at the US Open in 2003.
Top 5 countries for men’s Grand Slam tennis victories during the Open Era
Due to the nature of the important events in the Amateur Era, some people would argue that there is an asterisk in the total tally for some of the top five nations.
So, in addition to including a country that has been single-handedly propelled into fourth place by a certain Novak Djokovic, we have decided to compile a list from the beginning of the Open Era (1968) that is comparable to the overall ranking but also includes that country:
- USA (52 titles from 13 players) – Pete Sampras (14), Jimmy Connors (8), Andre Agassi (8), John McEnroe (7), etc.
- Spain (31 titles from eight players) – Rafael Nadal (22), Carlos Alcaraz (2), Sergi Bruguera (2), etc.
- Sweden (25 titles from four players) – Bjorn Borg (11), Mats Wilander (7), Stefan Edberg (6) and Thomas Johansson (1)
- Serbia (24 titles from one player) – Novak Djokovic (24)
- Switzerland (23 titles from two players) – Roger Federer (20) and Stan Wawrinka (3)
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