Who Is the Best Female Tennis Player?
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There’s no doubt that Serena Williams is one of the greatest athletes of all time. But is she the best female tennis player ever? Let’s take a look at the numbers.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is the best female tennis player of all time. She is an American professional tennis player and is currently ranked No. 1 in women’s singles tennis. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, which is more than any other player in the Open Era.
Grand Slam Titles
Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No.1 in women’s singles tennis. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time behind Margaret Court (24). Williams holds the record for most titles at the Australian Open (7), French Open (3), Wimbledon (7) and US Open (6), and she is the only player to have won all four Grand Slams in a row on two separate occasions (2002-03 and 2014-15). She is also the only player to have won four Grand Slam singles titles in a row while still active on the WTA Tour.
Overall Record
Serena Williams has a career record of 802-118 in singles, which is an 86.45% winning percentage. She has won 72 titles, including 23 Grand Slams.
In doubles, she has a career record of 180-45 (80%), winning 10 Grand Slams. Williams has also won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in doubles.
Margaret Court
disputes about who the best player is have gone on since the game’s early origins. In the 1970s, Australian player Margaret Court became the first woman to achieve a “career Grand Slam” by winning all four major singles titles: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Court’s achievement is all the more impressive because she accomplished it in the Open Era of tennis, which began in 1968.
Grand Slam Titles
Margaret Court holds the record for the most Grand Slam titles of any player in history – male or female. She won 24 singles titles, 21 women’s doubles titles, and five mixed doubles titles. Of her 24 singles Grand Slam victories, 13 were at the Australian Open, where she is still the only player to have won eight championships in a row.
Overall Record
In terms of Grand Slams played, Court is sixth on the all-time list, having competed in 62 majors (53 singles, nine doubles, and no mixed), behind Margaret Smith, Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Chris Evert. She won 24 Grand Slam titles (a record later surpassed by Serena Williams), including a record 11 Australian Open titles. Court won all four Grand Slam singles titles in 1970, a feat known as the Grand Slam.
Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf is a former German tennis player who, during her career, won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which is a record for the most Major wins by a tennis player in the Open Era, and an all-time record for a male or female player. She was ranked World No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association for a record 377 weeks.
Grand Slam Titles
Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 tennis player from Germany. She won 22 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, which is second only to Margaret Court’s 24. She also won the 1988 Olympic gold medal in women’s singles.
Overall Record
Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 German tennis player. She was the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which ranks her second in the history of women’s tennis (after Margaret Court with 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 the same calendar year. She is also distinguished for having won each Grand Slam event at least four times, which links her with Court and Platen for this record; and for winning 107 out of 108 single tournaments she entered from 1987 through 1990, which set a new Open Era record since computers began tracking results in 1973.
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is considered one of the best female tennis players ever. She has won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles, and 11 mixed doubles. She was the first female athlete to earn more than $100,000 in a single year. She is also a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Grand Slam Titles
Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She is considered one of the best female tennis players of all time. In her career, she won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles, and 11 mixed doubles titles. She was also a successful businesswoman, and she founded the Women’s Tennis Association and the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Overall Record
Billie Jean King (born November 22, 1943) is an American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women’s doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She won the singles title at the inaugural WTA Tour Championships. King often represented the United States in the Federation Cup and the Wightman Cup. She was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, she was the United States’ captain in the Federation Cup.
King is an advocate for gender equality and has long been a pioneer for women’s rights in sports. In 1973, at age 29, she won “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis match against 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She founded the Women’s Tennis Association and successfully lobbied for equal prize money for women at Wimbledon. As a result of her efforts, women’s prize money at Wimbledon increased from one-eighth to one-half by decade’s end, and over US$1 million by 2002. In 2001, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
In 2018, King received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump.
Grand Slam Titles
Navratilova holds the record for the most singles, doubles, and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles in history. In total, Navratilova has won 167 Grand Slam titles: 59 in singles (a record surpassed by Serena Williams in 2016), 71 in women’s doubles (an all-time record), and 37 in mixed doubles. She has also won 14 major women’s invitational events, more than any other player in history.
Overall Record
Martina Navratilova is a former world No. 1 tennis player from Czechoslovakia who became a United States citizen in 1981. She won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 major women’s doubles titles (an all-time record), and 10 major mixed doubles titles. Navratilova is one of just three women to have accomplished the so-called Career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles, and one of only four to win all four Grand Slams in doubles.
