The 10 Best Female Tennis Players in History

Serena Williams 

Serena Williams encompasses greatness in the world of female tennis and the sport generally. She is one of the few female tennis players whose legacy and influence, as well as achievements put her right at the top our list. 

She had a very successful career that demonstrated dominance in all senses with 23 career Grand Slam titles and the most match wins at 365. She has ventured into business since retirement and is making strides over there as well. 

Steffi Graf

One tennis player who could feature at number one in most top 10 rankings, Steffi Graf’s career is storied and in some aspects had Box-office like incidents. Graf is one of three female tennis players to have won a Grand Slam of tennis.

Part of her other accolades include a Golden Slam, which is a Grand Slam of tennis with an Olympic Gold medal in a calendar year, plus 107 career titles to her name. 

Martina Navratilova

Third on our list is Martina Navratilova, who had a successful career in both singles and doubles and was very much dominant in the latter. To her name, she has 167 career titles and 18 Grand Slams.

Her career titles are almost double the amount Serena Williams has, and that would have qualified her for number one in most lists. However, Serena trumps her overall in terms of legacy and influence in the sport.

Margaret Court

No other female on our list has more singles majors than Margaret Court with 24 Grand Slam titles to her name. Perhaps an argument could be made to have her a little higher up the list.

Justine Henin

The lesser known name on our list, Justine Henin has multiple titles to her name and brought light to Belgian tennis during her active playing days. It’s is because of her legacy and influence that she makes it on our list.

Chris Evert

Chris Evert’s 18 Grand Slam victories and 157 finals appearances speak to her storied career in the women’s division. She is one of the few players to be ranked world no.1 for a long time, having done so for 157 weeks.

Post-retirement, Evert has been involved in the development of tennis players, running an academy called the Evert Tennis Academy which is based in Florida.

Maria Sharapova

Coming in at number eight, Maria Sharapova is one of the best Russian tennis players ever, male or female, and retired officially in 2020. Sharapova also has a career Grand Slam to her name like some of the names we featured on our list. 

Among her other accolades is five Grand Slam titles with an overall 36 career titles in singles compared to 3 in doubles. All achieved utilizing the two-handed backhand technic against her fiercest opponents.

Monica Seles

Monica Seles was at one point Steffi Graf’s fiercest rival at the height of their careers, much to the escalation of an unfortunate incident that had a tremendous impact on one of their careers.

At sixteen years old, she was crowned the youngest French Open champion and has nine major titles to her name. Her stabbing was fictionalized in 1993 by Seinfeld in one of their episodes.

Iga Swiatek 

The youngest player on our list and the only one still playing actively and the world no. 1, Iga Swiatek is showing signs of greatness very early on into her career and as far as her trajectory, it looks like she will be ranked higher in the future.

At only twenty-three years, she already has five Grand Slam titles and twenty-two career singles titles and is yet to win any titles in a doubles event. 

Steffi Graf//Getty Images

SportsBoom Suggests

Looking at the rankings, dynamics and complexities of each respective female and their careers, at SportsBoom we hold certain views.

For one, we hold firm to the idea that Monica Seles by all measure could have been the greatest female tennis player to ever grace the court where it not for her unfortunate incident.

Her rise and successive victories early on in her career give indication to that assertion. And as far as popular opinion goes in tennis; most experts, opinion leaders and the likes have espoused such.

But we cannot dwell on the misfortunes of others as fate may have had it. Flowers must be given to the all-time great Serena Williams.

Her name is omnipotent in the sport and her influence goes beyond any titles won. She epitomized incomparable athleticism in the female division and if you were to ask a lay person to name a tennis star, her name would come top, male or female.

Martina Navratilova is another name that deserves mention, like Venus Williams, whose own success was and still is overshadowed by her younger sister.

Looking into the future, Iga Swiatek’s trajectory at only twenty-three years gives indication of a great in the making. Coco Gauff, although not present on our list, is bound for similar greatness.