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Donald Budge

was the son of a former Scottish footballer who moved to California in search of a mild climate to combat his respiratory problems. In the beginning, Donald, a tall and elegant boy in his actions, made basketball compatible with tennis, until the results led him to lean towards the racket. He was the first to square the circle: win all four Grand Slam titles in the same year, something that time would reveal to be one of the most difficult sporting achievements.

He did it in 1938, closing the sphere against

Gene Mako

, whom he defeated in four sets in the final of the United States Open, then called Forest Hill, before crowning himself as the great American hero with the conquest of the Davis Cup. Five years ago, the train had passed in front of

Jack Crawford

, defeated by

Fred Perry

in New York. It was in the hours leading up to that finale that

John Kieran

, New York Times columnist and bridge aficionado, coined card game terminology for tennis. "If Crawford beats Perry today it will be like a grand slam on the slopes, doubled and vulnerable."

Rod Laver

was, according to his own testimony in

An autobiography

(Allen & Unwin), a "redhead with 49,000 freckles, a hooked nose and crooked legs." "Outwardly I don't seem like a great athlete," he continues, "and perhaps that's why I like the public. I have nothing impressive, apart from my left arm, which would be called King Kong." This Australian, born in Rockhampton, precisely in 1938, the year in which Budge certified the hitherto unusual feat, and still today an illustrious witness in the great tennis events, is for some specialists the best player ever.

He was the second, and last to date, to collect all the majors in the same course, something that he achieved twice: the first, still as an amateur, in 1962, and the second, already professional, in 1969, after not having been able to compete in 27 Grand Slam tournaments between 1963 and 1968, once he lost his amateur status.

September 8 will mark 52 years since Laver overwhelmed his compatriot

Tony Roche

to close his second plenary session at Forest Hill. That day,

Novak Djokovic

, born in Belgrade in 1987, son of Srdjan, a former professional skier, and Dijana, married to Jelena and father of two children, Stefan and Tara, may find himself three victories away from becoming the third man to square off. the circle in the tournament that starts tomorrow. Fred Perry Roy Emerson, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic himself have the four most coveted tournaments, but none of them managed to bring them together in the same course. In all this time, no one even came forward with aspirations at the last station.

Winner in 2021 of the ninth Australian Open, second Roland Garros and sixth Wimbledon, the world number one faces a challenge of extraordinary proportions. It is not only about getting on the exclusive altar of Laver and Budge, but also about becoming, simultaneously, the tennis player with the most Grand Slam titles. It would be the twenty-first in his career, and one more than Federer and Nadal. Laver won 11. Budge, six. Three-time champion at Flushing Meadows, the last one in 2018, and present in another five finals, he has a balance of 75 wins and 12 losses.

It is not his best tournament, but nobody disputes him as the top favorite for the victory, not even after his time at the Tokyo Games, where he had come to put the hypothetical icing on the Golden Slam and could only finish fourth, off the podium for

Pablo Carreño

, the same man he lost his temper to in the round of 16 a year ago in New York, in an unfortunate set that cost him disqualification.

Absent Federer and Nadal, who have ended the season to try to recover from their respective injuries, the opposition remains in the hands of the players called to take over from power in a term that is presumed to be closer and closer.

At the head of them, this time,

Alexander Zverev

, recent Olympic champion, leaving Nole on the road, and the Cincinnati Masters 1000.

The 24-year-old German lost the 2020 final in New York when he had two sets ahead of Thiem, another of those absent in this edition due to his wrist injury.

It remains to be seen, if in the face of a hypothetical cross with Djokovic, Zverev would be able to knock down the best of five sets, where the Serbian has shown to handle himself like no one else.

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