12 Greatest Female Tennis Players Of All Time
In the late 19th century, the modern game of tennis originated as Lawn tennis in Birmingham, England. It is a racket sport played at all levels of ages. The players must maneuver the ball, so the opponent cannot return the valid return. Tennis has witnessed the remarkable performance of the greatest female tennis stars. However, there have been many great female tennis players, and selecting the top 12 is subjective. Be with us to learn more about the 12 greatest female tennis players of all time in this article.
1. Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is one of the strongest women and tops the greatest female tennis players chart list. She amassed 23 Grand Slams singles titles, 14 Grand Slams in women’s doubles and 2 in mixed doubles. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranked Williams Singles World No.1 on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017.
Serena Williams started playing tennis at the young age of 4 and made her professional debut in 1995. Her father, Richard Williams, Oracene Price, and Patrick Mouratoglou, coached her. She represented the USA in the 2012 Olympics and won a gold medal in tennis.
Even her pregnancy didn’t stop her from winning the 2017 Australian Open. She beat her sister Venus Williams in the final of the 2017 Australian Open, securing the 23rd Grand Slam singles title. In addition, Williams is also a certified fashion designer and author.
2. Steffi Graf
Steff Graf created history by becoming a tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam, winning all four Grand Slam singles titles in 1988. Similarly, she also won the Olympic gold medal representing West Germany in the same calendar year. She started her professional career on 18 October 1982 and retired on 13 August 1999.
Her father, Peter Graf, taught her tennis at 4, and she started playing tournaments at 5. Later, she learned more remarkable skills under coaches Pavel Slozil and Heinz Gunthardt. Graf was only 13 years old when she ranked world No. 124 in 1983.
Steffi Graf has won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranked her world No.1 for more than seven years. She retired at 30 and is still regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players.
3. Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova set a record for Open Era for a single player who won the most Grand Slam titles. She has amassed 59 major titles in her name, 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women’s doubles titles, and ten major mixed doubles titles. She started her professional career in 1975 and retired in 2005.
Navratilova’s mother taught her tennis at the age of 4, and she started playing tennis regularly at age seven. She won the Czechoslovakia national tennis championship at 15 in 1972. She was born in Czechoslovakia and became a US citizen in 1981.
Martina Navratilova became the Women’s Tennis Association world No.1, holding the top spot in singles and doubles for over 200 weeks. In addition, Navratilova worked as a regular commentator for the BBC and Tennis Channel at Wimbledon. She coached former Polish professional tennis player Agnieszka Roma Radwanska from 2014 to 2015.
Additionally, Navratilova also serves as an ambassador for the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She also appeared in the Netflix comedy-drama The Politician in 2019.
4. Chris Evert
Chris Evert had created history in professional tennis, reaching 34 Grand Slam singles finals. In addition, she amassed 18 Grand Slam singles championships and three double titles. She started her professional career in 1972 and retired on 5 September 1989.
Philippe Chatrier award winner Chris Evert learned tennis at age five from her father, Jimmy Evert. In 1989, she ranked No.1 under-14 girl in the United States. Later on, Evert polished her skills under coach Dennis Ralston. As a result, she won an overall 157 singles titles and 32 double titles.
PEOPLE magazine named her Sexiest Female Athlete in 1980. She also served as a coach and the Women’s Tennis Association president for eleven calendar years. Currently, she is working as an analyst for ESPN.
5. Margaret Court
Margaret Court is one of the greatest tennis players and has won 128 Grand Slam titles in tennis history. In addition, she set a tennis history, completing Multiple Grand Slam sets in all three disciplines.
Margaret started her professional career in 1960 and retired in 1977. In 1962, she won the French and US Championships, making her the first female player from Australia. In addition, she amassed several awards, including the ABC Sportsman of the Year Award, the Walter Lindrum Award, the Philippe Chatrier Award, and the Australian Sports Medal.
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6. Monica Seles
Monica Seles won French Open Champion when she was 16, making her the youngest champion in 1990. She won 8 Grand Slam singles titles representing Yugoslavia before her 20th birthday. Later, she won 9th and her final Grand Slam singles titles representing the United States.
Seles’s father taught her to play tennis at the age of five. Later on, she learned professional tennis under coach Jelena Gencic. In 1989, she started her professional career and retired in 2008. Although she retired in 2008, her last match was in 2003.
On 30 April 1993, Seles was stabbed with a 10-inch-long knife in her back and didn’t return to court for almost two years. However, Seles could have become the most accomplished female player if she hadn’t been stabbed.
7. Billie Jean King
In 1987, Billie Jean King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall and won 39 Grand Slam titles. In addition, she became the captain for three years in the Federation Cup, representing the United States.
King was a softball and baseball player as a child but switched to tennis at 11. She started her professional career in 1959 and retired in 1990. She founded the Women’s Sports Foundation and Women’s Tennis Association.
Moreover, King believed in gender equality and won the Battle of the Sexes tennis match against Bobby Riggs in 1973. President Barack Obama awarded her Presidential Medal of Freedom for advocating for women’s rights and the transgender community on 12 August 2009.
8. Venus Williams
Venus William became the first African American woman to reach the No.1 ranking in tennis singles in the Open Era on 25 February 2002. The Women’s Tennis Association ranked her world No.1 for 19 weeks. On 7 June 2010, she became world No. 1 in doubles after winning their fourth consecutive Grand Slam doubles title alongside Serena.
Local tennis player Tony Chesta identified Williams’s potential in tennis and started learning at 10, moving to West Palm Beach, Florida. On 31 October 1994, she started her professional career at 14. She has amassed 23 Grand Slam titles and four Olympics gold medals across all disciplines.
Alongside her sister Serena, she reached the finals of all four Grand Slams. She has combined 73 WTA titles, 49 WTA singles, 22 WTA doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles. Coach Eric Hechtman is polishing her remarkable skills from 2019.
9. Justine Henin
Justine Maria Sharapova Henin was ranked as the world’s No.1 women’s tennis player for 117 weeks and the year-end No.1 in 2003, 2006, and 2007. Although she came from a limited successful country in tennis, she led Belgium to its first Fed Cup crown in 2001.
On 1 January 1999, Henin started her professional career and retired on 26 January 2011. Her reason for retirement is her chronic elbow injury. She has 43 WTA singles titles and a gold medal in the women’s singles at the 2004 Olympic Games.
Time Magazine named her 30 Legends of Women’s Tennis: Past, Present and Future in June 2011. In addition, she is the first Belgian tennis player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
10. Evonne Goolagong
Evonne Goolagong was one of the best tennis players in the 1970s and early 1980s. She won the French Open singles and Australian Open doubles championships at 19. In addition, she won the Wimbledon tournaments making her the first mother to win in 66 years.
Goolagong started her professional career in 1970 and retired in 1983. She had reached the Grand Slam singles finals 18 times. Although she never won the US Open championship, she amassed 7 Grand Slam singles titles.
Goolagong was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Sports Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. Similarly, she was also named Australian of the Year in 1971. She endorsed various products and held sports-related leadership roles after her retirement in 1983.
11. Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis won 25 major Grand Slam titles, 5 Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, and 7 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. She became the first Swiss player to rank No.1 and won a Grand Slam.
Hingis started her professional career journey in 1994 and retired on 29 October 2017. Forbes ranked her the highest-paid female athlete in the world for five consecutive years. Unfortunately, in early 2003, she withdrew temporarily from professional tennis due to ligament injuries in both ankles.
Previously, she retired in 2007 due to her hip injury but came out of retirement to play the doubles events of the North American hardcourt season in July 2013. Hingis won a silver medal in women’s doubles at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. In 2017, she finally retired while ranking world No.1.
12. Helen Wills
Helen Wills started her professional career in 1919 and retired in 1938. During her professional tennis career, she amassed 31 Grand Slam tournament titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. In 1924, she won two gold medals representing the United States in the Olympics.
Wills often practiced against men to develop her skills in tennis. Her match against Suzanne Lenglen in February 1926 was called Match of the Century. Later on, Martina Navratilova stopped her from winning the ninth.
Wills was often called the most outstanding female player in history and arguably the most dominant tennis player of the 20th century. Sadly, she left the world on 1 January 1998 at Carmel Convalescent Hospital.
Honorable Mentions
Other female tennis players have also proven to be the greatest besides the players listed above. Some of the honorable mentions are on our lists:
- Suzanne Lenglen
- Maria Sharapova
- Virginia Wade
- Kim Clijsters
- Hana Mandlikova
- Lindsay Davenport
- Sloane Stevens
- Garbine Muguruza
