The Best Women’s Tennis Players in History
Selecting the top choices of any field is a difficult, subjective task, even when there are empirical facts to be taken into account.
There have been many great female Tennis players over the Open Era’s last 50 years, before you even begin taking great athletes from the early 20th century into account! Improvements in racket technology, nutrition, and fitness regimes have only complicated an already challenging task.
Chris Evert, 1954 –
Evert was born in Fort Lauderdale, in Florida in the USA and turned pro in 1972. She’s known for her incredible grace on the court, as well as for being an absolute machine from the baseline. It was these qualities and her two-handed back shot that saw her rise to fame in the middle 1970s and remain a household name until the early 1980s.
She still holds the World Record for reaching the most Grand Slam Singles Finals, with 34, and she took home 18 of these, including one for each Major, at least twice. When Navratilova appeared on the scene fans were provided with an incredible on-court rivalry as she battled it out with Evert who was a year-ending No. 1 Player in the World for seven years and had a win percentage in Singles matches of more than 90%.
Martina Navratilova, 1956 –
Czechoslovakian Navratilova is one of the toughest competitors to ever appear on the Tennis court, and she dominated the Women’s game from the later part of the 1970s through a considerable portion of the 1980s. She was famous for her intense physical conditioning and is credited with bringing back the big serve and volley to the Women’s game.
Think of her as having the power of the slot machine in the online casinos Dubai and the rest of the world has to offer, able to draw spectators like these games can attract new players!
Serena Williams, 1981 –
Serena Jameka Williams hails from the United States of America and is a former World No. 1 player. She has won 23 Major Singles, more than any other player, male or female, in the Open Era. The Women’s Tennis Association has ranked her as World No. 1 in Singles on eight different occasions between 2002 and 2017.
Steffi Graf, 1969 –
Born in Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg in West Germany, Graff was a model of consistency, able to play and win on all surfaces, across a career that spanned 17 years. She spent a record 377 weeks ranked as the No. 1 player in the world, male or female, and became the first athlete to win all four Majors along with an Olympic Gold Medal in 1988.
Margaret Court, 1942 –
Born in Albury, in New South Wales, Australia, Margaret Court turned pro in 1960. There are many experts in the field today who feel that she’s the best player of all time, and, with a record of 24 Grand Slam Singles titles, it’s a tough case to argue! Add 19 Doubles and 19 Mixed Doubles titles to the mix and she has a record of 62 Major titles to her name.
