A Grand Slam title in tennis refers to winning one of the four major tournaments in the sport:   The Australian Open, The French Open, The Wimbledon and The US Open. I guess, in a way, it’s much like golf. Except, as you know, the majors are The Open, the US Open, the PGA Championship and The Masters.

Winning all four Grand Slam tournaments in a single year is called a Calendar Grand Slam, which is one of the rarest achievements in tennis. (There are only 2 men and 3 women that’s accomplished that so far in history. Winning all four over the course of a career is called a Career Grand Slam. Which is also a crazy accomplishment, 

Roger Federer won 20 Grand Slam titles in his career…meaning, he has won all four, twenty times. placing him among the most successful players in tennis history. His consistency across different surfaces and his ability to perform under pressure made him one of the most dominant figures in the sport.

Beyond his on-court achievements, Federer has made significant contributions to the sport and society. He established the Roger Federer Foundation, which focuses on improving education for children in Africa and Switzerland. His philanthropic efforts and global influence have solidified his status as a role model and ambassador for tennis.

So what? Why are we talking about tennis so much?

Well, in his 2024 speech at Dartmouth College, Federer talked about something that piqued my interest…me, who has never played tennis competitively before, and me, who had to look up what a grand slam was. I thought it had to do with pancakes from the Denny’s menu. 

You know what Federer talked about? He talked about how he won 80 percentage of his matches in his career. That makes sense, that’s how he became so well revered and known. But, he said something interesting, he asked, out of all those matches I’ve won, do you know what percentage of the points I won of those matches? Only 54%.

This means that even though Federer won the majority of his matches, he barely won more than half of the total points he played. In other words, he lost 46% of the points in those matches yet still managed to come out victorious overall. 

Isn’t that interesting? Especially when you put it into the context of golf. Winning doesn’t require perfection. Even the best players in the world hit it in the water, or out of bounds, or get bogeys, and sometimes, double bogeys…but what sets them apart is their ability to not dwell, but to stay focused, adapt, and perform when it matters most. 

Resilience—how to bounce back from tough moments and keep moving forward. That’s exactly what this episode is going to be about: not letting a bad shot ruin your game or your mindset. Federer’s career is full of examples of how to stay focused, let go of mistakes, and keep striving for greatness. He’s the perfect example of why it’s so important to move on and focus on the next shot.