One of the most popular topics in tennis this season has been the ongoing Greatest Of All Time debate.
From the WTA Tour’s perspective, who would you consider to have the distinction of being the best player of all-time?
Roger Federer has been touted as the GOAT after winning the French Open and passing up Pete Sampras, but Federer is still not even close to topping some of the longstanding records on the WTA Tour.
Over the past several decades, professional women’s tennis has produced some remarkable champions, but who would you consider to be the best? Join today’s discussion by leaving your opinion below!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
AMELIE MAURESMO, RENNAE STUBBS, SAM STOSUR, DANIELA HANTUCHOVA, SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA, JELENA DOKIC!
Monica Seles is the greatest tennis-player of all time because of the following three facts in combination:
(a) Monica had already won 8 Majors by the age of 19 years and 2 months (the Australian Open 1993), and was winning them at a rate of three a year.
(b) On 30th April 1993, Monica was stabbed in the back at a changeover by a man who couldn’t bear the thought of Monica usurping Steffi Graf (who, at the time of the Stabbing, had won 11 Majors by the age of 23, and was ranked #2 behind Monica).
(c) Monica came back in mid-1995, winning her first WTA tournament (a Tier I at Toronto) for the loss of 14 games in 5 matches, coming within an overruled ace of winning the US Open 1995, and actually winning the Australian Open 1996 for her 9th Major title.
Rather than establishing arbitrary and / or wholly subjective parameters for the GOAT (age at which titles are won; tragic and unfair attacks on an individual; comebacks, etc.), let us go to an independent and impartial authoritative source for guidance.
The International Tennis Hall of Fame has this to say (and remember that the question posed does not limit the greatest player to the Open era):
“For sheer strength of performance and accomplishment there has never been a tennis player to match Margaret Court Smith. As the most prolific winner of major championships, she rolled up 62 titles in singles, doubles and mixed doubles between 1960 and 1975, and took the Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. singles all within 1970 for the second female Grand Slam. She is the only player to achieve a Slam in doubles as well as singles; Margaret and fellow Aussie Ken Fletcher won the four titles in mixed in 1963.
Her closest rivals statistically are not close: Martina Navratilova with 56 majors and Roy Emerson heading men with 28 (sorry Roger). Court has 24 alone in singles, three ahead of Steffi Graf.”
Inducted into The Hall of Fame in 1979, “The Arm”, as Ms. Smith was nicknamed, must certainly be considered for the GOAT title.
Go to tennisfame.com, click on Hall of Famers and search “Margaret Court “.
Serve & volley queen Martina Navratilova. 18 GS singles titles, 31 GS women’s doubles titles and 10 GS mixed doubles titles.
People like Margaret Court and Maria Bueno are are before my time and represent a different era. So it’s not easy to compare.
I would plump for Monica or Martina N. with the Williams siters Venus included, very close by. There is still time for those sisters to put in a compelling case for GOAT.
But of course there is a large dose of subjective preference goes into a question like this. It’s fun and nothing more, because in truth, they are all worthy of huge respect.
When it came to women and tennis my formative years where dominated by two women, Martina and Steffi.
Alice:
Margaret Court is before my time also (never even seen video of her in action). But the question is not about “my’ time or “your” time but rather about who is the greatest player of “all-time”. Casting about for an answer I discovered the eye-opening assessment of Court by the ITHOF; if you can be objective and look past the “Open era” restriction, then Margaret Court Smith looks very much like the GOAT.
though, i can see ms. court’s achievements are far astounding, but we have to note that some of her records were achieved before the open era, which means less competitive competition for a bountiful of titles and records…
my good recommendation would have been martina navratilova, she achived a box set, which is a rarity in the sport, she achieved a career slam in all divisions in the sport (singles, doubles, mixed doubles), she had done this in spite of competiton from the veteran billie jean king, the ice maiden chris evert, and against the fraulein forehand ms. graf…
next in contention would be steffi graf…as the GOAT debate centers on singles accomplishments, then i would rank steffi behind martina, steffi won all majors a least four times in her career, which is a great feat, then considering the reintroduction of tennis as a medal sport in the olympics, an olympic medal would have been one of the considerations for a GOAT, steffi won one gold and a silver
No, no, no.
Go to the top of this article. Read the question written in bold type. Read it carefully (carefully!). See the last two words in the question, the two words connected by a hyphen? That’s it: “all-time”. Not part-time or some-time or a distinct period in time (the Open era) but “all-time”.
The record is clear: if we limit the achievement to tournaments played only in the Open era, then Ms. Navratilova gets the prize for the greatest (with very little room for argument).
However, if the record of achievement is expanded to include the time before (the supposedly “amateur” competitive period) as well as the time after the Open era began, that is to say that if we look honestly at “all-time”, then one person rises to the title of greatest (once more…drumroll please): Margaret Court.
Reading Ms. Court’s bio, it is interesting to discover that she had a “power” serve and volley game and that she trained very hard to get and stay in shape for her matches; apparently the competition was far from “less competitive”.