Four tournaments a year carry more weight than everything else on the tennis calendar combined. They run from January to September, on three different surfaces, across four continents — and they are far less interchangeable than the shared “Grand Slam” label suggests.
This is a reference guide to all four: when each is played, what surface it uses, how it differs, and when matches actually start in IST. Editorial only — no odds, tips or predictions here or anywhere on this site.
The four majors at a glance
| Major | Usual window | Surface | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Open | January | Hard | Melbourne Park, Australia |
| French Open (Roland Garros) | Late May – early June | Clay | Paris, France |
| Wimbledon | Late June – mid July | Grass | London, England |
| US Open | Late August – early September | Hard | New York, United States |
Two hard-court majors, one on clay and one on grass. The clay and grass events sit back to back in the calendar despite being the two most dissimilar surfaces in the sport, which is the single most demanding transition a professional makes each year.
2026 results so far
Three of the four have been completed as this is written, and the year has been notably unpredictable.
| Major | 2026 dates | Men’s champion | Women’s champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| French Open | 24 May – 7 June 2026 | Alexander Zverev | Mirra Andreeva |
| Wimbledon | 29 June – 12 July 2026 | Jannik Sinner | Linda Noskává |
Zverev’s Roland Garros title made him the first German man to win a major singles championship since Boris Becker in 1996. Andreeva became the fourth Russian woman to win the French Open, following Myskina, Kuznetsova and Sharapova.
At Wimbledon, Sinner beat Zverev 6–7(7), 7–6(2), 6–3, 6–4 to retain the title — the tenth man in the Open Era to defend it, and his fifth major — while the women’s title went to Noskává over Muchová 6–2, 5–7, 6–3 in an all-Czech final between the ninth and tenth seeds, Noskává’s first Grand Slam. Our Wimbledon 2026 recap covers that fortnight in full.
How the surfaces change the tennis
This is the part that genuinely matters, and it is why a player can dominate one major and struggle at another.
| Surface | Bounce | Pace | What it rewards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clay | High | Slow | Endurance, defence, heavy topspin, long rallies |
| Grass | Low | Fast | Serving, first-strike attack, short points |
| Hard | Medium | Medium to fast | Balance — the most neutral of the three |
Clay slows the ball and lifts the bounce, so points extend and physical endurance decides matches. Grass does the reverse — the ball skids low and fast, points end early, and a strong serve is worth more than anywhere else. Hard courts sit between the two, which is why they are used for two of the four majors and why hard-court results are the best general indicator of form.
The consequence is that a “career Grand Slam” — winning all four — is genuinely difficult in a way that raw talent alone does not solve. It requires being excellent in three quite different physical environments, and plenty of great players never manage it.
The calendar, month by month
- January — Australian Open. Played in the Australian summer, with heat a recurring factor and extreme-heat policies in place.
- February to April — the hard-court and clay build-up. Tour events leading into the European clay season.
- Late May to early June — French Open. The clay peak, and physically the most demanding fortnight of the year.
- Late June to mid July — Wimbledon. A very short grass season precedes it, with only a few weeks to adapt.
- Late August to early September — US Open. The final major, played in New York’s late-summer humidity.
- Autumn — the indoor season and finals. The tour year winds up with indoor hard-court events.
The gap between the French Open and Wimbledon is roughly three weeks. Going from the slowest surface in tennis to the fastest in that time, with a handful of warm-up events, is the calendar’s most awkward feature — and it is why some players effectively write off one of the two.
IST timings for each major
Work this out once per tournament and the whole fortnight becomes easier to follow.
| Major | Offset from IST | What it means in India |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Open (Melbourne) | IST roughly 4.5–5.5 hours behind | Early morning starts, running into the afternoon |
| French Open (Paris) | IST 3.5 hours ahead | Afternoon and evening — convenient |
| Wimbledon (London) | IST 4.5 hours ahead | Late afternoon and evening — the most convenient |
| US Open (New York) | IST 9.5 hours ahead | Evening sessions run into the early hours in India |
Wimbledon is the easiest to follow from India — Centre Court’s 1:00 pm start is 5:30 pm IST. The French Open is similarly comfortable. The Australian Open means early mornings, and the US Open night sessions are the hardest, beginning after midnight IST. Note that Europe and Australia observe daylight saving while India does not, so offsets shift by an hour depending on the month.
What each major does differently
- Australian Open — extreme-heat policies, retractable roofs on the main courts, and a reputation as the most relaxed of the four.
- French Open — the only clay major, historically the last to adopt technology, and the most physically punishing.
- Wimbledon — all-white clothing, no on-court sponsor branding, run by a private members’ club, and the only grass major. Introduced video review in 2026.
- US Open — the loudest atmosphere, prominent night sessions under lights, and the most commercially staged of the four.
These differences are not cosmetic. Night sessions at the US Open change how the ball behaves as the temperature drops; the heat policy in Melbourne can suspend play entirely; and Wimbledon’s grass is the only surface in the sport that changes character over the course of a tournament as it wears.
Following the majors sensibly
- Check the exact dates each year. The windows shift slightly, and the Australian Open in particular moves.
- Work out the IST offset once per tournament and note whether daylight saving applies.
- Know which session you are watching. Day and night sessions at the US Open start hours apart.
- Expect week two to play differently, especially at Wimbledon as the grass wears.
- Draws are released a day or two before play, not weeks ahead.
- Rain delays are normal at Wimbledon and Roland Garros; roofs cover only the main courts.
Our other tennis coverage
- Wimbledon 2026 — full results and the video-review debut.
- Australian Open 2027 — the next major in the calendar.
- US Open 2026 — the final major of the year.
- Tennis betting markets explained — what the market types actually mean.
- Tennis page — our main tennis coverage.
In short
Four majors a year: the Australian Open in January on hard, the French Open in late May and early June on clay, Wimbledon from late June on grass, and the US Open from late August on hard. Three surfaces, four continents, and genuinely different tennis at each.
In 2026, Zverev and Andreeva won at Roland Garros — Zverev the first German man to take a major since Becker in 1996 — while Sinner and Noskává won at Wimbledon. For Indian viewers, Wimbledon and the French Open are the comfortable ones, the Australian Open means early mornings, and the US Open night sessions run past midnight IST.
Scoring and match length
The majors do not all score identically, and the differences change how long matches last and how they are won.
| Men’s singles | Women’s singles | |
|---|---|---|
| Sets to win | Best of five | Best of three |
| Typical length | Two to four hours, sometimes longer | One to two and a half hours |
| Final-set format | Tie-break at 6–6 in the deciding set at all four majors | Same |
| Where they differ most | Clay, where five sets is punishing | Less pronounced |
The best-of-five format in the men’s draw is the reason Roland Garros is regarded as the most physically demanding fortnight in tennis. A five-set clay match with long rallies can exceed four hours, and a player may need to do that more than once inside two weeks.
All four majors now use a tie-break to decide the final set, ending the era of open-ended deciding sets that occasionally produced matches lasting many hours beyond a reasonable finish. The exact tie-break threshold has been standardised across the majors, which removed one of the more confusing inconsistencies in the sport.
Seeding, draws and byes
A few conventions govern every major draw and are worth knowing before following one.
- 128 players in each singles draw, producing seven rounds to the title.
- 32 seeds, placed so the top two can only meet in the final.
- No byes — a full 128 means every player, including the top seed, plays a first round.
- Qualifiers come through a separate pre-tournament event and fill the remaining places.
- Wild cards are awarded by the tournament, often to home players or returning names.
- The draw is made a day or two before play, not weeks ahead.
Seedings at Wimbledon have historically been the most likely to diverge from world rankings, because grass-court form is weighted differently. That is a genuine quirk of the tournament rather than an oversight, and it reflects how poorly a ranking built mostly on hard and clay courts predicts performance on grass.
What we cover, and what we do not
Our tennis pages are editorial: dates, formats, surfaces, results, timings and history. We do not publish odds, tips, predictions or anything framed as guidance on outcomes, at any tournament.
That line is deliberate. Tennis content online blends schedule information into implied advice more freely than almost any other sport, and we would rather the distinction stayed clear. If a page here tells you when a match starts, that is all it is telling you.
The tours behind the majors
The four majors sit on top of a season that runs almost the whole year, and understanding the tiers below them makes the calendar easier to read.
- Grand Slams — the four majors, carrying the most ranking points and run by their own organising bodies rather than the tours.
- Masters 1000 / WTA 1000 — the tier immediately below, mandatory for most top players.
- 500 and 250 level events — the working body of the tour, where ranking points are accumulated between the bigger weeks.
- Year-end finals — an eight-player event for the season’s leading players, held indoors.
- Team competitions — national team events that sit outside the individual ranking structure.
- Challenger and lower tiers — where players build the ranking needed to enter the main draws at all.
The majors carry substantially more ranking points than anything else, which is why a single good fortnight can move a player’s ranking more than months of solid results elsewhere. It is also why the seeding at a major reflects a year’s work weighted heavily towards four tournaments.
Why rankings and seedings do not always match
A common source of confusion: the seedings at a major are not always a straight copy of the world rankings.
Wimbledon is the clearest case. Grass-court form has historically been weighted into its seeding, because a ranking built almost entirely on hard and clay courts is a poor predictor of grass performance. A player who is excellent on grass and ordinary elsewhere may be seeded above their ranking, and vice versa.
Elsewhere, protected rankings apply to players returning from long injury absences, which allows them entry and occasionally seeding that their current ranking would not support. Neither of these is a flaw — both are attempts to make the draw reflect likely performance rather than accumulated points.
Planning a year around the majors
- January — Australian Open, early mornings in India, running through the Indian afternoon.
- February to April — the hard-court then clay build-up; useful for reading form into Roland Garros.
- Late May to early June — French Open, comfortable afternoon and evening viewing in IST.
- Late June to mid July — Wimbledon, the most convenient major for Indian audiences.
- Late August to early September — US Open, with night sessions running past midnight IST.
- Autumn — the indoor swing and the year-end finals close the season.
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