First tennis player to defend 10 Grand Slam singles titles (male)

At the 2018 Australian Open, Roger Federer (Switzerland) racked up another milestone by becoming the first male player to successfully defend 10 Grand Slam singles titles when he retained the trophy he won in Melbourne 12 months earlier. Remarkably, it was the first time that Federer had won back-to-back singles titles at the same Grand Slam since winning the US Open in 2008.

Federer’s 10 successful titles defences, in chronological order: 2004 Wimbledon, 2005 Wimbledon, 2005 US Open, 2006 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open, 2007 Australian Open, 2007 Wimbledon, 2007 US Open, 2008 US Open, 2018 Australian Open.

Rafael Nadal had defended nine Grand Slam singles titles (from the 2006 to the 2019 French Opens), as of 8 September 2019. The other leading male contenders (qualification: 10 Grand Slam singles titles won) include Björn Borg (eight title defences), Bill Tilden (6), Pete Sampras (6), Roy Emerson (5) and Novak Djokovic (5).

In the women’s game (qualification: 10 Grand Slam singles titles won), Helen Wills Moody (10), Margaret Court (10) and Steffi Graf (10) jointly lead the way, with all three players achieving 10 successful title defences long before Federer did it. Martina Navratilova (8), Chris Evert (6) and Serena Williams (6) come next.