All-time tennis records – women's singles

Overall tennis records – women's singles covers the period 1884 to present.

Before the beginning of the Open era in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tennis tournaments, including the four Grand Slams. Wimbledon, the oldest of the Majors, was founded in 1877, followed by the US Open in 1881, the French Open in 1891, and the Australian Open in 1905. Beginning in 1905 and continuing to the present day, all four majors have been played yearly, with the exception of the two World Wars and 1986 for the Australian Open. The Australian Open is the 1st Major of the year (January), followed by the French Open (May–June), Wimbledon (June–July), and US Open (August–September). There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. A player who wins all four current major tournaments, as a single or as part of a doubles team, in the same calendar year is said to have achieved the "Grand Slam". If the player wins all four consecutively, but not in the same calendar year, it is called a "Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam". Winning all four at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Grand Slam". Winning the four Majors and a gold medal in tennis at the Summer Olympics has been called a "Golden Slam" since 1988.[1] Winning all four plus gold at some point in a career, even if not consecutively, is referred to as a "Career Golden Slam". Winning the Year-End Championship also having won a Golden Slam is referred to as a "Super Slam".[2][3][4] Winning the four Majors in all three disciplines a player is eligible for – singles, doubles, and mixed doubles – is considered winning a "boxed set" of Grand Slam titles. The current Grand Slams are the four most prestigious tournaments in the world held every year, they are distinguished by participation from almost every top player and by their two-week duration, 128-player draw in women's singles. It's extremely rare for a player to win all four events, "the Grand Slam", in one calendar year. This was only achieved three times since 1888 by Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, and Steffi Graf, the latter of whom stands alone in winning the "Golden Slam".

These are some of the important records since the start of women's tennis in 1884.

Most statistics are based on the data at the WTA Tour and International Tennis Federation, the official websites of each respective Grand Slam tournament and published sources though this is not a definitive list due to the time periods involved.

Active streaks and active players are in boldface.

Grand Slam tournament records

Grand Slam Singles totals

Grand Slam tournament consecutive streaks

  • (3) Denotes multiple streaks

active streaks in boldface

Grand Slam match winning percentages

** Not all sources agree with two of Wills' losses. She did not play the matches because of appendicitis, and did not appear at the 1926 Wimbledon Championships, the tournaments gave her defaults instead of the typical walkovers (which do not count as wins or losses). It is unknown why the tournaments chose to default, taking these facts into consideration her adjusted win percentage would be 123–3 = 97.61%.

Grand Slam career achievements

Grand Slam, Golden Slam and Super Slam

Winning tournament without losing a set

  • Minimum 2
# Player Majors
13United States Helen Wills Moody1927 US, 1928 FR, 1928 WM, 1928 US, 1929 FR, 1929 WM, 1929 US, 1930 FR, 1930 WM, 1931 US, 1932 FR, 1932 WM, 1938 WM
6United States Martina Navratilova1983 WM, 1983 US, 1984 WM, 1986 WM, 1987 US, 1990 WM
United States Serena Williams2002 WM, 2002 US, 2008 US, 2010 WM, 2014 US, 2017 AU
5France Suzanne Lenglen1922 WM, 1923 WM, 1925 FR, 1925 WM, 1926 FR
United States Maureen Connolly1953 AU, 1953 WM, 1953 US, 1954 FR, 1954 WM
Australia Margaret Court1961 AU, 1962 AU, 1963 AU, 1965 WM, 1966 AU
United States Chris Evert1974 FR, 1976 US, 1977 US, 1978 US, 1981 WM
West Germany Steffi Graf1988 AU, 1988 FR, 1989 AU, 1994 AU, 1996 US
4Australia Nancye Wynne Bolton1946 AU, 1947 AU, 1948 AU, 1951 AU
Australia Evonne Goolagong Cowley1971 FR, 1975 AU, 1976 AU, 1977 AU
3Germany Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling1935 FR, 1936 AU, 1937 FR
United States Billie Jean King1971 US, 1972 FR, 1972 US
United States Lindsay Davenport1998 US, 1999 WM, 2000 AU
Belgium Justine Henin2006 FR, 2007 FR, 2007 US
2United States Doris Hart1951 WM, 1952 FR
Switzerland Martina Hingis1997 AU, 1997 US
United States Venus Williams2001 US, 2008 WM


Individual Major tournaments

Titles per event
  • Minimum 3 titles
Consecutive titles per event
  • The French Open was only a Grand Slam event from 1925 onwards
  • Wimbledon (10) other women have won at least 2 consecutive titles since 1884
  • (3) Denotes multiple times

Bold: Active players

Finals per event

Bold: Active players

Match wins per event
Winning percentages per event
  • ** both losses were actually "default", Suzanne Lenglen's adjusted win percentage would be 100%.

Season streaks

Title leaders by decade

minimum 2 titles

Calendar year achievements

Golden Grand Slam * Event of completion
West Germany Steffi Graf1988 Olympics
* The Grand Slam + Olympic Gold

Four Majors

Three Majors

Consecutive Majors

Four

Australian OpenFrench OpenWimbledonUS OpenYear
United StatesMaureen ConnollyUnited States Maureen ConnollyUnited States Maureen ConnollyUnited StatesMaureen Connolly1953
AustraliaMargaret CourtAustraliaMargaret CourtAustralia Margaret CourtAustraliaMargaret Court1970
West GermanySteffi GrafWest GermanySteffi GrafWest GermanySteffi GrafWest GermanySteffi Graf1988

Three

Two

Best single season

All tournament records

Singles titles and finals

Tournament streaks

  • Active players in bold

Most titles at a single tournament

Most finals at a single tournament

Titles by court surface type

Titles by environment

Matches played/won

  • As of February 15, 2016

Consecutive match streaks

Match wins per court type

Matches won by environment

Winning percentage by surface

  • Note that the figures below represent career winning percentages of players that are retired (regular font) as well as current active players (boldface). The latter are subject to change and do not reflect the final figure.

Best single season

The Year-End Championships

  • (1970 – present)

WTA Tier I, Premier Mandatory and Premier 5

  • Overall totals include Tier I, Premier Mandatory, and Premier 5 tournaments only.
  • Tier I events were played on 3 surfaces, (carpet) ceased as a surface after 1995.

Titles by court type

Match wins/ percentages

Ranking records (since 1883)

Notes: 1883 –1920 rankings are more variable in nature because of limited sourcing from 1921 onwards more recent rankings are much better sourced are shown here World number 1 women tennis players. Before the open era of tennis arrived in 1968, rankings for amateur players were generally compiled only for a full year of play. Professional players were ranked by journalists, promoters, and players' associations usually at the end of the year. Even for amateurs, however, there was no single official overall ranking that encompassed the entire world. Instead, nation rankings were done by the national tennis association of each country, and world rankings were the preserve of tennis journalists. It was only with the introduction of computerized rankings in the open era that rankings were issued more frequently than once yearly. Even the end-of-year amateur rankings issued by official organizations such as the United States Lawn Tennis Association were based on judgments made by men and women and not on mathematical formulas assigning points for wins or losses.

  • * as of May 8, 2017.

Notes: Sources that are as authoritative as can be found in the men's article are also quoted in the women's can also be found here: ranking sources.

WTA Prize money leaders

See the Open Era records page since the leaders are all in that era.

See also

References

  1. Drucker, Joel (16 October 2008). "ESPN: Graf's Golden Slam". ESPN. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  2. "Photo Gallery: Top 10 Men's Tennis Players of All Time: #7: Andre Agassi". Sports Illustrated. p. 4. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
  3. Kay, Dimitri (22 November 2010). "Rafael Nadal Will Bid To Emulate Andre Agassi at the World Tour Finals". Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  4. Nelson, Murry R., ed. (2013). American Sports: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. Greenwood Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780313397523.
  5. Janela, Mike (26 August 2013). "From Richard Sears to Andy Murray, Six Degrees of US Open separation". Guinness World Records Limited. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  6. Schwartz, Larry (2014). "Evert: grit, grace and glamour". ESPN. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  7. "US OPEN 2014: Capsules on Top Women's Players". ABC News. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  8. Finn, Robin (6 July 1990). "Garrison Stuns Graf in Wimbledon Semifinal". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  9. "Most Grand Slam singles tennis tournaments played consecutively". Guinness World Records Ltd. 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  10. "Great AO Champions". Australian Open. 1996–2015. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  11. "Record Breakers". Roland Garros.com. 2015. Archived from the original on 2014-09-17. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  12. Bevis, Marianne (29 August 2011). "Molla Mallory – the unsung record-breaker". The Sports Review. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  13. "French Open coverage on NBC continues this weekend with third- and fourth-round matches". NBC Sports. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  14. "Sampras and Mallory Inducted into US Open Court of Champions". Tennis Industry Magazine. September 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  15. Janela, Mike. "From Richard Sears to Andy Murray, Six Degrees of US Open separation". guinnessworldrecords.com. Guinness World Records. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  16. 1 2 Lewis, Aimee (2014). "French Open women's final as it happened This page automatically updates". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on June 10, 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  17. 1 2 Admin, WTA (27 May 2013). "Notable WTA Tour records". Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  18. Writer, Staff (29 August 2000). "Is the Wisden Trophy coming home?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  19. Moody Wills, Helen (2014). "Singles Records" (PDF). US Open. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  20. "Tennis Career Highlights". chrisevert.org. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-08-30. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  21. "Serena Williams: US Open champion's career in numbers". BBC Sport. 9 September 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  22. Gerstner C, Joanne (28 May 2012). "'La Divine' Suzanne Lenglen". ESPN. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  23. 1 2 "No.1 Spotlight: Martina Navratilova". wtatennis.com. WTA. Archived from the original on 2015-04-05. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  24. Navratilova, Martina. "Title Leaders at One WTA Event2014" (PDF). WTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-15. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  25. 1 2 Writer, Staff (24 May 2011). "Novak Djokovic's win streak is nothing to this birthday girl". World Tennis Magazine. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  26. Conner, Floyd (2002). "Tennis's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Baseline Blunders, Clay Court Wonders, and Lucky Lobs". Potomac Books Inc USA. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  27. Finn, Robin (3 January 1998). "Helen Wills Moody, Dominant Champion Who Won 8 Wimbledon Titles, Dies at 92". NY Times. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  28. Engelmann, Larry (12 May 1988). The goddess and the American girl : the story of Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills (First ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 61–78. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  29. Mazak, Karoly (2010). The Conscise History of Tennis. Karoly Mazak. p. 14. |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  30. Little, Alan. "Suzanne Lenglen: Tennis idol of the twenties". Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum 1988. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  31. 2012 Official Guide to Professional Tennis, compiled by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, page 253
  32. Court, Margaret. "Record Titles One Season" (PDF). 2014. WTA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-15. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  33. Judd, Brandon (22 March 2013). "Longest winning streaks of all time". Deseret News. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  34. Keene, Ann T. (June 2000). "Moody, Helen Wills". American National Biography online. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  35. Collins, Bud (2008). The Bud Collins History of Tennis. New York: New Chapter Press. pp. 695, 701–2. ISBN 0-942257-41-3.
  36. 1 2 3 4 5 Allen, JA. "Who's No. 1? 16 women in tennis who held the top spot longest". Sports Then and Now. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.