It's time for the Grand Slam!

Will it be the same old stalwarts or will a new star emerge at the Australian Open, starting on January 13?

The Grand Slam season in tennis in 2014 opens with the commencement of the Australian Open in Melbourne on January 13. For any player with the ambition of becoming the calendar-year Grand Slam champion by winning the championships at the Australian, French, Wimbledon and the US Open events, the Australian Open is very important as it makes a beginning.

The term Grand Slam was coined by New York Times columnist John Kieran, taking it from the game of golf. There are different forms of Grand Slams - calendar-year, non-calendar year, career and boxed set. The calendar-year Grand Slam is the most sought after. So far, among men, we have had only Don Budge (UK, 1938) and Rod Laver (Australia) with the distinction of having won all the four majors in the same year. Laver had the additional distinction of being a Grand Slam winner in 1962, when he was an amateur,and in 1969 when he was a professional in the Open era.

Among women players, we have Margaret Court (Australian, 1970), Maureen Connolly (USA, 1953) and Steffi Graf (USA, 1988). After winning the Olympics gold medal in Seoul, Graf came to be considered as a Golden Slam winner. It should be said that winning all the four majors in the same calendar year is more difficult now than before because, unlike in the earlier years, when the surfaces were more or less uniformly grass, now each Grand Slam is played on a different one. This does not in any way detract from the achievement of the Grand Slam winners in the past. The most awesome achievement is the Career Boxed Set that implies winning the singles, doubles and mixed doubles championships at all the four Grand Slam events. No man has won a career boxed set and only three women have accomplished this feat - Doris Hart, Margaret Court and Martina Navratilova.

The question in the minds of the aficionados of tennis is about the player who will wear the crown in 2014 at Melbourne. For nearly a decade the quartet of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray dominated the field as they figured often in the semi-finals of the Grand Slam events. This has changed in the last year or so. Murray has dropped out due to the problem of injuries while Juan Martin Del Potro seems to be the rising star. There are others like David Ferrer who are trying to win at least one Grand Slam. The Quartet is trying its best to hold on to its cherished position. This has seen a change in their coaches. Murray set the trend by hiring Ivan Lendl who is credited for the former's wins at Wimbledon and the Olympics. Djokovic has Boris Becker as his trainer.Federer has engaged Stefan Edberg. However, Nadal is sticking to his uncle Toni. The pre-Australian tournaments at Doha and Brisbane indicate that the finals at Australian Open might be between Djokovic and Nadal with the odds favouring Djokovic.

Nadal made a remarkable comeback in 2013 after being out with injury for several months. He earned two Grand Slam titles and had a 75-7 win-loss record. Federer, the King of Grass, on the other hand, suffered humiliating defeats at the hands of juniors and went down to 6 in the ATP rankings. Murray lost to Florian Mayer in the second round at the recent Qatar Open on the very first day of the New Year. The results keep Djokovic 10-9 ahead in wins against Nadal in all their final matches and 3-3 in head-to-head meetings in 2013. At the ATP world tour final in December in London Djokovic prevailed over Nadal winning 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and a half.