In English, the word Grand Slam first appeared in 1933. At that time, an American journalist named John Kieran compared Jack Crawford's ambition to win the four titles mentioned above to "a countered and fragile grand slam in bridge". Unfortunately, Crawford lost to Fred Perry in the final of the US Championship that year and failed to do so. Until 1938, Donald Bacchus became the first Grand Slam winner in history.

Although the term Grand Slam was originally used only in tennis, it was gradually adopted by other sports to describe similar achievements made by players. A typical example is golf, and a grand slam also means that players win four major events at the same time in one year.