Which Female Tennis Player Has The Most Grand Slams?
Contents
A list of the female tennis players with the most grand slam titles.
Margaret Court
Margaret Court is a retired Australian tennis player. She is a former world No. 1 in singles and, with 24 Grand Slam championships, she is the most successful female tennis player in history. Court won 11 Grand Slam singles titles in a row between 1970 and 1973.
Early Life
Margaret Court was born in 1942 in Albury, New South Wales, and is the third child of Lawrence and Irene Court. Her father worked as a driver for a delivery company, while her mother was a homemaker. Court began playing tennis at age four and was coached by her older sister at the local tennis club. When she was nine years old, her family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Box Hill, where she continued to play tennis.
Professional Career
Court began her professional career in 1960, when she was just 18 years old. She won her first singles title in Perth, Australia. Court went on to win numerous other titles over the next few years. In 1962, she won her first grand slam title at the Australian Open. She also reached the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon that year, but lost both times. Court’s success continued in 1963, when she won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon. She also won the U.S. Open in 1965, 1967, and 1970. By the end of her career, Court had won a total of 24 grand slam titles, which is a record for a female tennis player.
Major Achievements
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time. Williams has also been ranked number one in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association on eight occasions.
Early Life
Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. At the age of three, her father began teaching her how to play tennis. Williams began competing in local tournaments at age five and soon took up residence at the tennis academy run by Rick Macci in Florida. She had great success as a junior player, winning major tournaments such as the Orange Bowl (a prestigious event for 12-and-under players) in 1995 and 1996.
Professional Career
Serena Williams has been a professional tennis player since 1995. She has won 73 singles titles and 23 doubles titles. Serena has also been ranked number one in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association on eight occasions, from 2002 to 2017. She is regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time.
Serena’s first major tournament victory came at the 1999 U.S. Open, where she defeated Martina Hingis in the final. She went on to win the Australian Open in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2017. Serena has also won Wimbledon seven times, in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2016. She has won the French Open twice, in 2002 and 2013.
Major Achievements
Serena Williams has won thirty-three Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and numerous other awards. She has been ranked number one in the world eight times by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and has held that ranking for a total of 319 weeks. Williams is regarded as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time.
Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. She has won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which is the second most in history behind Margaret Court.
Early Life
Steffi Graf was born on June 14, 1969, in Mannheim, West Germany. Her father, Peter Graf, was a car and insurance salesman; her mother, Heidi Schalk, worked as a housewife. As a child growing up in Brühl—a suburb of Cologne—Graf excelled at many different sports.She became interested in tennis after watching Wimbledon on television with her father when she was five years old.
Graf took her first tennis lesson when she was six years old. When she was nine years old, she won her age group at a local tennis tournament where one of the prizes was a free tennis racket. She later received free tennis instruction from Romanian-born player and coach Woldemar Hess. Under Hess’s tutelage, Graf won several junior tournaments and even earned a spot on the West German national team. When she was 11 years old, Hess introduced her to Romanian-born player and coach Ion Tiriac—a man who would become her lifelong friend and mentor.
Professional Career
Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player. She won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which ranks her second after Margaret Court (24). In 1988, she became the only tennis player to achieve the Golden Grand Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in one calendar year. She is the only female tennis player to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments at least four times each.
Major Achievements
Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player. She was the only tennis player (male or female) to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year (1988), a feat since accomplished only three times by two other players. In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles which is currently second on the list of Major wins by a female player (behind Margaret Court with 24).
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. She won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She is also a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Early Life
Billie Jean King was born on November 22, 1943, in Long Beach, California. The daughter of a fireman and a homemaker, King began playing tennis at the age of 11 and quickly developed into a promising young player. She entered her first major tournament, the U.S. girls’ championship, in 1959 and won the event in 1960. At 17, she became the youngest player ever to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon.
During her amateur career, King also captured three straight titles at the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) championships (1966-68). Turning professional in 1968, she embarked on a highly successful career that included 39 Grand Slam singles titles—the most ever won by a female player—and more than 100 tournament victories overall.
Professional Career
King won her first major tournament at the age of 17, taking home the women’s doubles crown at the 1967 Australian Open. She won her first singles Grand Slam title a year later at the 1968 Wimbledon Championships. All told, King would win 12 Wimbledon titles during her career, including six in singles, four in women’s doubles, and two in mixed doubles. She would also go on to win four more Australian Open titles (two singles, two doubles), as well as three U.S. Open titles (two singles, one doubles).
In 1971, King played what many consider to be the greatest tennis match of all time against fellow American Bobby Riggs. Riggs was a former Wimbledon men’s singles champion who had proclaimed himself the “King of Tennis” and challenged King to a match, promising to prove that women’s tennis was inferior to men’s tennis. The event was dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes,” and it drew massive media attention from around the world. In front of a television audience of more than 50 million people, King defeated Riggs in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Later in her career, King was a vocal advocate for gender equality in sports and became a co-founder of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). In 1973, she helped start the Virginia Slims Series (now known as the WTA Tour), which was a professional tennis circuit for women that offered equal prize money to its male counterpart, the ATP Tour. King was also instrumental in getting Wimbledon to offer equal prize money to men and women champions beginning in early 2007. As of 2021, she remains active as a promoter of social justice causes and gender equality.
Major Achievements
Billie Jean King is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player. She won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles, and 11 mixed doubles titles. She is also an advocate for social justice and gender equality.
