When Pete Sampras, arguably the greatest and certainly the most successful tennis player of the previous millennium, retired from the game after winning his last professional match - the 2002 US Open finals - to clinch a then-record 14th Grand Slam, we couldn't have imagined that this monumental achievement would be eclipsed in just 7 years. After all the previous record of most majors stood for 33 years since Roy Emerson won his 12th in 1967, which was surpassed by Sampras at Wimbledon 2000.

Emerson's more illustrious and acclaimed compatriot Rod Laver became the first and to date the only player in the open era to win all 4 majors in a calendar year. He achieved the staggering feat in 1969. Leave aside a calendar slam, it took 30 years before anyone could even accomplish a career slam. Andre Agassi managed to scale that peak by winning the French Open in 1999 and in exactly a decade, by 2009, the flamboyant American was not the only companion with the legendary Australian at the career slam summit.