Feb 28

Feb 28 The 5 Greatest Female Tennis Players Ever

Tim Ellis

Opinion

The Best Female Tennis Players of All-Time

There have been many incredible female tennis players throughout the years and seven female tennis players have accumulated over ten Grand Slam singles wins.

These greats have inspired generations of players and had a huge impact on the world of tennis.

tennis player Billie Jean King — Tennis icon Billie Jean King

Billie-Jean King, with 12 Grand Slam wins, must surely get an honourable mention here. She did so much on and off the court to raise the profile and position of women’s tennis.

She even took on the opposite gender in the famous Battle of the Sexes match in 1973, made into a recent film starring Steve Carell and Emma Stone.

Helen Wills is another tennis great. She won 19 singles titles and had a 180-match win streak from 1927 until 1933.

The American was undoubtedly an undisputed champion of her era. She wasn’t a media darling by any stretch, but she deserves a separate article on her greatness!

While Novak Djokovic topped our list of the greatest male tennis players of all-time - in this article, we’ve put together 5 modern female tennis players that stand out for their incredible consistency in winning the big ones.

These players make up our list of the greatest female tennis players to have played the game.

5. Chris Evert

Chris Evert still possesses the record for reaching the most singles Grand Slam finals at 34, winning 18 of them.

That number would have been in the 20s if she’d not run into Martina Navratilova 14 times at the last hurdle.

She was almost ahead of her time with a metronomic two-handed backhand that could flatten the best serve and volley players, especially when three out of her four Slams were still played on the green grass.

At one point, Evert won four US Opens in a row from 1975-1978, winning 25 matches and dropping only one set in the process.

Her intense concentration and focus gave her the moniker ‘The Ice Princess’.

Her athleticism was also a factor in backing up the baseline control.

She was an influencer of the 70s and 80s, paving the way for the powerful back-of-the-court hitters that followed.

Her mental strength was also unbreakable! Hear from Chris Evert in our amazing list of quotes about tennis!

4. Martina Navratilova

Navratilova was a giant in terms of landing Grand Slams across all formats. She won 18 major singles titles and an incredible 41 doubles.

Some of her winning runs were frightening. In 1984, she enjoyed 74 straight victories in a streak that included 13 WTA trophies.

There were other incredible runs of 86-1 and 90-3, and a period where she appeared in 23 consecutive singles finals.

What made Navratilova stand out was her commitment to strength training and her diet.

She was ahead of her time. With a formidable serve and volley game, added to incredible court coverage, many of her opponents simply did not have the tools to stay in the game.

She won a record nine Wimbledon titles, four US Opens, three Australian Opens and even two French on her least favourite surface.

3. Steffi Graf

When the German only lost three games in the final two sets of the 1988 Wimbledon final against Martina Navratilova, there was a realisation that the baton had been passed to a new force in women’s tennis.

Graf spent a total of 377 weeks at number one, and in that same year, she became the first modern player to win all four Slams and the Olympic gold.

The Mannheim-born player won a total of 22 Slams from 31 and from the 1995 French Open to the 1999 tournament at Roland Garros, Graf prevailed in all seven major finals that she reached.

She won an incredible 282 out of 316 matches at the big four singles venues.

Her greatest shot was the inside-out forehand, used to devastating effect.

Her trophies are evenly distributed on all courts with five US Opens, six French titles, seven Wimbledons and four Australian trophies.

Chris Evert said: “Steffi Graf is the best all-around player. Martina won more on fast courts and I won more on slow courts, but Steffi came along and won more titles on both surfaces.”

Serena - so good she only needs one name.

2. Serena Williams

In the film ‘King Richard’, a lot of the focus is on Venus Williams, as she makes her first plays on the WTA Tour at the age of 14.

Serena awaits her entry and is never seen on the court as a pro on celluloid. Richard knows that Serena will be the player that can dominate and be the GOAT. Well, what do you know…

The younger sister won 73 singles titles overall, including 23 Grand Slam singles wins out of 33.

Six of those ten defeats came in the last eight finals, where she was supposedly past her peak.

Incredibly, Serena won 14 out of 14 major doubles titles with Venus.

She is the only woman to come back from match point down three times in a major tournament to ultimately win the trophy, twice in the Australian Open and once at Wimbledon.

Her fierce competitiveness is her greatest strength.

1. Margaret Court

She holds some controversial views, but on the tennis court, Margaret Court’s abilities were unquestionable.

She had a big serve, backed up with a strong volley and admirable attention to circuit training and fitness.

She was even dubbed the ‘Aussie Amazon’ for her dedication, coming back to the court as sharp as ever after having children.

The Australian said, rather tersely: “After having the first baby, I won three of the four Slams. And Serena hasn’t won a Slam since.”

All of these elements heaped pressure on opponents.

Her Slam singles final record is unprecedented. She won 24 out of 29 between 1960 and 1973, winning 11 out of the last 12 in the Open Era when the competition was extra stiff.

If you add 21 major titles in mixed doubles and another 19 in doubles, that’s 64 major titles. It’s something else!

Court won all 12 majors at least twice. Her overall record of 1,180-107 spans amateur and professional eras, adding up to an amazing 92% success rate.