Women’s Day Special : Find out the list of Unbreakable Tennis records held by women

From not being included in the Olympics for 60 years and requiring demonstration from players to be included in the Games, Tennis has come a long way to become one of the most-watched sports. While the sport itself has its merits as being one of the highest paying sports, it has also been a fantastic example of gender equality coming to the events and platforms presented.

While the debate always continues about the WTA Tour having lower prize money than the ATP Tour with the tennis governing bodies now having made equal prize money in at least the Grand Slam events, the sport is progressing towards an equal environment and is one of the first to take the initiative.

As the entire world celebrates ‘International Women’s Day’ on 8th March, let’s have a look at some of the records in tennis history held by the women superstars of the games which are nowhere close to being overtaken by their male counterparts on the ATP Tour.

Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam titles

While the trio of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have dominated the men’s side, not one of them has managed to break the record of Margaret Court. Court won an astonishing 24 Grand Slam singles titles during her career and having won her 24th major at the 1973 US Open, the record has still not been matched with only Serena Williams coming close to with 23 majors to her name.

Steffi Graf’s Golden Slam

With many players finding it difficult to win more than 2 Slams in a season with a rare occasion of 3, Steffi Graf smashed all those records when she went on to win all 4 Grand Slams in the 1988 season along with winning the singles Olympic Gold at the 1988 Olympics, winning all before celebrating her 20th birthday. Djokovic came close to matching the feat in the 2021 season but failed to win the 2021 US Open and lost in the Bronze medal match at the Olympics.

Steffi Graf’s most weeks as World No. 1

Along with winning 22 majors (3rd highest in history) before retiring at the age of 30, Steffi stayed at the top of the rankings for 377 weeks, an all-time record of which she was at the top for 186 consecutive weeks, a record she shares jointly with Serena. While Federer was at the top of the rankings for 237 weeks, the only player to be at the top for 200+ weeks, Steffi’s total weeks record remains untouched with Djokovic the second best with 361 total weeks.

Serena Williams’ Career Golden Slam

After Stefi won the Calendar Golden Slam, players have managed to win a Career Golden Slam, winning all 4 majors and the Olympic Gold sometime in their career. Serena Williams remains the only player in history to achieve this feat in both the singles and doubles discipline, achieving the singles Career Golden Slam in 2012 by winning the Olympics Gold and the doubles Career Golden Slam in 2001 by winning the 2001 Australian Open.

Monica Seles’ domination in the Australian and French Open

Monica Seles turned Pro in 1989 and went on to become the youngest ever champion at the French Open winning the title in 1990 at the age of 16, a record that stands to date. Monica went on to win the French Open for the next two years, completing a hattrick of titles at the tournament and achieved a similar feat at the Australian Open winning three consecutive titles from 1991 to 1993 making her the only player to hold 3 Australian Open and French Open titles simultaneously as she won 8 majors before turning 20.

Venus Williams’ Olympics glory

With Tennis back in Olympics from 1988, no other player has achieved the success that American great Venus Williams has achieved. The former World No. 1 remains the only player ever to win an Olympic medal at four different Olympics Games along with being the most decorated Tennis Olympian with 5 medals to her name, 1 singles Gold (2000), 3 doubles Gold (2000, 2008, 2012) and 1 mixed doubles Silver (2016).

Martina Navratilova’s Grand Slam tally

Having turned Pro in 1974, Martina Navratilova was active as a player for 32 years retiring finally in 2006. During this period, the former World No. 1 won 18 majors in singles, 31 majors in doubles and 10 majors in mixed doubles to combine for a total of 59 Grand Slam titles to her name, a feat not matched in Open Era ever.

Martina Navratilova’s reign of supremacy in both singles and doubles discipline

Having played for 32 years on the Tour, Martina not only played as a Pro and ‘one in the mix’, but she was also at the top of the rankings for a good number of weeks. With 332 weeks at the top in women’s singles rankings and 237 weeks in women’s doubles, Martina remains the only player in history to have stayed at the top of the rankings for more than 200 weeks in the two disciplines.

Emma Raducanu’s Dream run

When a certain World No. 150 Emma Raducanu boarded her flight to New York, she was aiming just to reach the main-draw of the 2021 US Open. Instead, she went on to win the Grand Slam and did it in style not dropping a single set during her 10-match run in the Flushing Meadows to become the first-ever singles qualifier in the Open Era to win a major while also holding the distinction of playing the least Grand Slams before winning her first. The win also saw Emma jump a staggering 127 places in the rankings, one of the biggest leaps in tennis.

Kim Clijsters’ unranked major

Kim Clijsters making a comeback in 2009-10 will always remain one of tennis’ famous folklore. Returning after a gap of 2 years, Kim was unranked and had to rely on wildcards to enter tournaments which were granted easily given her heroics in the previous seasons. Entering the 2009 US Open, she was unranked as a player needed to play at least 3 tournaments to be ranked.

Kim reached New York with only two tournaments but shocked the world when she went on to win the title and defeated the Williams sisters on her way to the finals and then beat Caroline Wozniacki in the finals to win her second title at the US Open. She would later come back and defend her title at the 2010 US Open, making it three titles from three appearances at the US Open having not played the Slam from 2006 to 2008.

While these are just a few of the records held by women in sports, it certainly highlights the talent, skills and capability of the players who battle not only the opponents and odds but also a lot of off-court factors but don’t let it bother them when they are on the court.

Also Read: Indian Wells 2022: Women’s Singles Draw Preview and Prediction for BNP Paribas Open

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