Serena Williams
Chris Evert
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Serena Williams leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Serena Williams at #2 and Chris Evert at #9.
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The case for Serena Williams
Serena Williams won her first major at the 1999 US Open at age 17 and her 23rd — the Open Era record for any player, man or woman — at the 2017 Australian Open while roughly eight weeks pregnant. Between those bookends lies the most sustained excellence in women's sports history: 23 Slam finals won from 33 contested, 319 weeks at No.1 including a 186-week consecutive run that tied Steffi Graf's record, four Olympic gold medals, and two separate 'Serena Slams' (holding all four majors at once) completed eleven years apart, in 2002-03 and 2014-15. She won majors as a teenager and in her mid-thirties, beat No.1-ranked opponents across three different decades, and returned from a 2011 pulmonary embolism to compile arguably her best stretch, going 3.5 seasons from 2012 with a match record above 90 percent. Her serve is widely considered the greatest shot in the history of women's tennis. On dominance relative to field, she has a case for the top spot on any list.
The case for Chris Evert
Evert set standards of consistency that still look unreal. Her career winning percentage of roughly 90 percent — about 1,309 wins against 146 losses — is the highest of the Open Era for either sex, and on clay she won 125 consecutive matches between 1973 and 1979, the longest single-surface streak in the sport's history alongside Nadal's. She reached the semifinals or better at 34 consecutive Grand Slams she entered, and won at least one major every year for 13 straight seasons, from 1974 to 1986, finishing with 18. A pioneer of the two-handed backhand and the ice-cool baseline precision that earned her the nickname the Ice Maiden, she spent 260 weeks at No.1 and captured a then-record seven Roland Garros titles. Her 80-match rivalry with Martina Navratilova, which she trailed 37-43, dragged both women to greater heights and defined the women's game for over a decade. Peak dominance and unmatched reliability place her comfortably inside the all-time top ten.