Women's Singles players to win same Grand Slam title for three consecutive years as World No. 1

Published at :June 11, 2024 at 5:15 AM

Modified at :June 11, 2024 at 5:15 AM

(Courtesy : Getty Images)

Iga Swiatek won her fifth Grand Slam title since 2020.

Top seed Iga Swiatek lifted the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen for the fourth time. The World No. #1 and Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek, who has good things to say about Rafael Nadal, appears to be emulating his dominance on the clay courts of Roland Garros in the WTA Tour.

In the just concluded edition of the French Open, the Pole got the better of Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 in Saturday’s final. The win gave her fourth trophy in Paris and her third French Open trophy in a row – all while being the top seed.

Only three other women have attained this milestone in the Open Era – winning the same Grand Slam three years in a row as the top seed. Iga Swiatek joins these legends in 2024 and looks primed for many more wins and toppling many more records.

ALSO READ: When did Iga Swiatek last lose a match at French Open?

The outstanding women of the game to have included their names in the history books by winning three or more Grand Slam titles as the top seed include:

Chris Evert – US Open (1975-77)

Chris Evert has won 17 singles Grand Slam titles in her career. She opened her account by winning her first Grand Slam at Roland Garros in 1974. It was the American’s three-win streak at the US Open between 1975-77 as the top seed that earned her a place on this list.

The year 1975 was also when Evert made her debut in the championship round after making it to the semifinals four times in a row between 1971 and 1974.

Back then, the US Open was played on clay, by far Evert’s favourite surface. The diminutive American went on to win two more US Open trophies in 1980 and 1982 to end up with a total haul of five.

Martina Navratilova – Wimbledon (1982-87)

While Chris Evert dominated the clay courts during her prime, Martina Navratilova stamped her authority on the grass courts of Wimbledon. Among Navratilova’s collection of nine titles at SW19, six of them she won consecutively, each as the top seed.

Her other three titles at Wimbledon came in 1978, 1979, and 1990. The triumph in 1990 was the last major title of her career.

Navratilova is well known for her rivalry with good friend, Evert, whom she played an astounding 80 times on the WTA tour. The Prague born Navratilova leads Evert 43-37.

Steffi Graf – Australian Open (1988-90) & Wimbledon (1991-93)

The indomitable Steffi Graf was a familiar face on the WTA tour from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s.

Her haul of 22 Grand Slam singles wins and a total of 377 weeks as World No. #1 are a part of her legacy. Only in 2017 did Serena Williams get past Graf’s tally of Grand Slam wins and saw a new player take over the top spot of most Grand Slam title victories. The American won the 2017 Australian Open title that year, also her 23rd.

Not once but twice did Graf accumulate three straight Grand Slam wins at different events with the label of top seed. The first occasion was at Melbourne, and the second time was at Wimbledon.

Graf, in all, picked up four wins at the Australian Open (1988-90, 1994) and seven at Wimbledon (1988-89, 1991-93, 1995-96). The German called time on her career after reaching the 1999 Wimbledon finals and a final Roland Garros trophy earlier in the same year.

Graf also owns a calendar slam when she swept all the majors in 1998. The same year, she double bageled Natalia Zvereva, 6-0, 6-0, in a one-sided French Open final in just 32 minutes – a record that stands to this day.

Iga Swiatek – Roland Garros (2022-2024)

Swiatek’s hat-trick of wins at Roland Garros makes her the first woman this century to win three straight titles at Roland Garros since Justine Henin in 2005-07. The Pole is only the third player on the list, with Monica Seles being the first to do it between 1992-94.

The World No. #1 is within arm’s reach of Suzanne Lenglen’s tally, who won six titles in the 1920s, and creeping up on Chris Evert’s seven titles, which she won in the 1970s and 80s.

Swiatek came within eight minutes of Graf’s 32-minute win record at a Grand Slam when she took apart a hapless Anastasia Potapova, 6-0, 6-0, in only 40 minutes for the quickest game of her career. The Pole also reached 107 weeks as World No. #1 during the title run at the 2024 French Open.

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