Martina Navratilova
Billie Jean King
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Martina Navratilova leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Martina Navratilova at #7 and Billie Jean King at #12.
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The case for Martina Navratilova
Navratilova rewrote what a tennis career could contain. Her 167 singles titles are the most by any player in the Open Era, man or woman; add 177 doubles titles and 59 total Grand Slam trophies (18 singles, 31 women's doubles, 10 mixed) and she is the most decorated champion in the sport's history. Her peak was the most dominant sustained stretch ever played: 86-1 in 1983, a 74-match winning streak in 1984 that remains the Open Era record, six consecutive majors across 1983-84, and 331 total weeks at No.1. Her record 9 Wimbledon singles titles included six in a row. Beyond the numbers, she changed the sport's methods — the first champion built on modern strength training, nutrition and sports science, a full decade before it became standard — and her 80-match rivalry with Chris Evert (43-37 Navratilova) is the longest great rivalry tennis has produced. She won her last major, mixed doubles at the 2006 US Open, at age 49.
The case for Billie Jean King
King won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 39 majors across all disciplines, including a record 20 Wimbledon titles counting singles, doubles and mixed. But her importance dwarfs even those totals. In 1973 she founded the WTA, threatened to boycott the US Open until it became the first major to pay women and men equally, and beat 55-year-old Bobby Riggs in the 'Battle of the Sexes' before an estimated 90 million television viewers — a victory that reshaped public attitudes toward women's sport far beyond tennis. An aggressive serve-and-volley player and ferocious competitor, she reached world No.1 and won titles across grass, clay and hard courts over two decades. No player has done more to build the professional women's game or to win its economic and cultural battles, which is why her place among the immortals rests on a foundation the pure title-counters miss. The tour's premier team competition, the Billie Jean King Cup, now carries her name.