List of players with 100 or more wins as WTA World No.1

Published at :February 25, 2024 at 5:02 PM

Modified at :February 26, 2024 at 12:56 PM

(Courtesy : AFP)

Iga Swiatek achieved the remarkable feat during her triumph at Qatar Open 2024.

Polish tennis star Iga Swiatek has been on a remarkable run of form in the past two years. She has recorded 13 wins against top 10 players in 2023 and 15 wins against top 10 opponents in 2022, becoming the first woman to achieve this feat since Serena Williams in 2013 and 2014. Swiatek has also racked up 135 wins across two calendar years, matching the record set by Serena Williams with 136 wins in 2012 and 2013.

Swiatek started 2024 with a bang by reaching 100 or more wins as the WTA World No. 1. She joined an elite group of legends who have done the same, including Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Serena Williams, Martina Hingis and Justine Henin. Swiatek is now in her 92nd week overall as World No. 1 and is closing in on Lindsay Davenport’s 98 weeks.

Swiatek had a minor setback at the Australian Open, where she exited in the third round, but bounced back to win the Qatar Open 2024. However, she failed to complete the ‘desert double’ as she lost in straight sets to Anna Kalinskaya in the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships. She was the last seed to bow out of the second WTA 1000 event of the season.

Read on to know more about the star tennis players who have etched their names in the history books for the unique feat.

Chris Evert

Chris Evert is the proud owner of a record 154 singles titles, including 18 Grand Slam titles. Evert’s haul of 154 singles titles is second in the Open Era. Her clay court winning streak of 125 matches is second to none and lasted from August 1973 to May 1979, until Tracy Austin defeated her in straight sets in Rome.

Evert holds the Open Era record for most consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances, numbering 34, beginning with the 1971 US Open through to the 1983 Roland Garros.

Martina Navratilova

Martina Navratilova holds the record for the most singles titles in the Open Era with 167 titles. The Czech-American legend also won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, 31 Grand Slam women’s doubles titles and 10 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. No one has ever surpassed her 31 doubles Grand Slam titles.

She dominated the grass courts of Wimbledon, where she claimed nine titles. Navratilova remains connected to the game, working as a presenter/commentator for the BBC, Tennis Channel and BT Sport

Steffi Graf

Steffi Graf is not only famous for winning 107 singles titles in her remarkable career, but also for dominating the world rankings for 377 weeks, 186 of which were in a row. She achieved a rare feat in 1988, when she was just 19-years-old, by winning a golden slam. That year, she swept all four Grand Slams and also clinched the Olympic gold in Seoul.

Serena Williams

Serena Williams started her professional career in 1995, following her sister Venus Williams, who turned pro a year earlier. Serena was the first of the two to win a Grand Slam title, triumphing at the 1999 US Open. She went on to win 23 more Grand Slam trophies, only one shy of Margaret Court’s record of 24.

She also won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with her sister at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, beating the Dutch duo of Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans in the final, 6–1, 6–1. Her impressive career haul includes 73 singles titles.

Monica Seles

Monica Seles amassed 53 career singles titles, ranking ninth on the all-time list. She became the World No. 1 for the first time in 1991, at the age of 17, making her the youngest at the time (now the second youngest after Martina Hingis). She finished as the year-end No. 1 in 1991 and 1992 and won seven of the eight Grand Slams she played before being stabbed by a fan of Steffi Graf in 1993.

Only Graf had a better run, winning eight of nine Grand Slams between 1988 and 1990. Seles took a two-year hiatus after the attack, returning in 1995 and briefly sharing the No. 1 spot with Graf.

Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis made history as the youngest Grand Slam champion in the 20th century when she won the 1997 Australian Open at the age of 16 years and two months. She also became the youngest No. 1 in history at 16 years and six months. The Swiss star is the youngest player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title. She collected a total of 43 singles titles in her career.

Hingis won six consecutive tournaments in 1997, including the season-opening Australian Open and with that victory, she became the second youngest player to win a singles Grand Slam title at age 16. The youngest was Lottie Dod, who won Wimbledon at age 15 in 1887.

Justine Henin

Justine Henin’s remarkable achievements in a career that spanned a little over a decade suggest that she played for much longer. She was at her peak between 2003 and 2007, when she won all seven of her Grand Slam titles. During those five years, she won four French Open, two US Open and one Australian Open titles. Henin was also a two-time Wimbledon finalist in 2001 and 2006. She was the WTA year-end No. 1 three times in 2003, 2006 and 2007.

Henin is one of the few female players to have reached the finals of all four majors in a calendar year, achieving the feat in 2006. She also won the Olympic gold medal in singles at Athens in 2004.

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