Two players share the outright record for Grand Slam singles titles: Novak Djokovic leads the men on 24, and Margaret Court matches him on the women's side, also on 24, which makes the Australian the most successful singles player the sport has produced.

Below that pair sit some of the biggest names tennis has known, and the gaps between them tell a story about eras, surfaces and the rules of the day.

A couple of those numbers look smaller than they should, and there is a good reason why.

If you want the definition first, we have covered what a Grand Slam actually is separately. This one is about who has won the most of them.

The men's all-time Grand Slam leaderboard

The men's record has been rewritten repeatedly this century, and Djokovic finished on top of the pile. Here is where the leading men stand on career major singles titles:

• Novak Djokovic, 24
• Rafael Nadal, 22
• Roger Federer, 20
• Pete Sampras, 14
• Roy Emerson, 12
• Bjorn Borg, 11
• Rod Laver, 11
• Bill Tilden, 10

A cluster of greats sit just below on eight apiece, including Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall. T

he top three did most of their damage inside the same 20-year window, which is what makes the pile-up at the summit so remarkable.

Novak Djokovic, 24

Djokovic holds the outright men's record and the all-time Australian Open mark, having won in Melbourne 10 times. His 24 majors break down as 10 Australian Opens, seven Wimbledons, four US Opens and three French Opens, a spread across all four surfaces that no other man has matched. His most recent came at the 2023 US Open.

Rafael Nadal, 22

Nadal retired in late 2024 as the second most successful man in history, and one number towers over the rest. Fourteen of his 22 majors came at Roland Garros, the most any player has won at a single Grand Slam.

The King of Clay tag was earned the hard way, four titles in a row on three separate occasions in Paris.

Roger Federer, 20

Federer walked away in 2022 with 20 majors and the record that mattered most to him, eight Wimbledon titles. He added six Australian Opens and five US Opens, though the French Open never came easily.

A single Roland Garros crown in 2009 sits alone on his clay-court record.

Why Laver and Rosewall sit lower than they should

Look back up that list and two Australian names stand out for the wrong reason. Rod Laver on 11 and Ken Rosewall on eight both rank below players they routinely beat, and the explanation has nothing to do with ability.

Before 1968, only amateurs could enter the four majors. The moment a player turned professional, the Grand Slam door slammed shut.

Laver won the calendar Grand Slam in 1962 as an amateur, then turned pro and was locked out of the majors for five years. He returned when the Open Era began and promptly swept all four again in 1969, the only man to complete the calendar Grand Slam twice. Those missing five seasons, smack in his prime, never landed on his major tally.

Rosewall had it even rougher. He turned pro in 1957 and spent roughly 11 years barred from the Grand Slams.

His official count reads eight, but add the professional majors he collected during those locked-out years and the number climbs to 23. He also won major titles across three different decades, a feat matched only by Djokovic and Nadal, and he lifted the Australian Open at 37.

Read their numbers with that context, and both men belong far higher than the raw leaderboard suggests.

The women's all-time Grand Slam leaderboard

The women's record sits with an Australian, and it has held firm for more than half a century. Here are the leading women on career major singles titles:

• Margaret Court, 24
• Serena Williams, 23
• Steffi Graf, 22
• Helen Wills Moody, 19
• Chris Evert, 18
• Martina Navratilova, 18

The top of this list has proven far harder to shift than the men's, where three players traded the record inside two decades. The women's mark has not moved since 1973.

Margaret Court, 24

Court holds the outright record across both the men's and women's game with 24 singles majors, won between 1960 and 1973.

Eleven of them came at the Australian Open, a home haul nobody has come close to.

Thirteen of her 24 arrived before the Open Era began, which fuels a long-running debate about how the total measures against the modern field. The record still stands as the record.

Serena Williams, 23

Williams owns the Open Era record on 23, every one of them won against a fully professional, global field.

She came within a single title of Court's mark, falling short in her final four attempts before retiring in 2022.

The spread was ruthless, seven Australian Opens, seven Wimbledons, six US Opens and three French Opens, banked across three different decades.

Steffi Graf, 22

For peak dominance, nobody tops Graf's 1988. She won all four majors and Olympic gold in the same year, the only Golden Slam in tennis history, and it has stood untouched ever since.

Her 22 majors were built on all-court balance, lethal on grass, clay and hard courts alike.

The calendar Grand Slam, the rarest feat of all

Winning one major is a career-defining result. Winning all four in the same calendar year sits on another level entirely, and the list of players who have managed it is tiny.

Five players have completed the calendar Grand Slam, and it has been done six times in total:

• Don Budge, 1938
• Maureen Connolly, 1953
• Rod Laver, 1962 and 1969
• Margaret Court, 1970
• Steffi Graf, 1988

Laver is the only man to do it twice, once either side of his professional exile. Graf remains the last to pull it off, back in 1988, and her version came with an Olympic gold medal stapled on top.

There is a softer version called the career Grand Slam, winning each major at some point rather than all in one year, plus a non-calendar-year Grand Slam, four in a row spread across two seasons.

Both are rare and hugely prestigious. Neither carries the weight of sweeping the lot inside 12 months, which is why the calendar Grand Slam has stayed the hardest line to draw in the sport.