If you’re a tennis fan, you already know what an incredible sport it can be. Not only does it unite people from around the world, it also promotes good values, like sportsmanship, politeness, and hard work!
In fact, tennis has been shown to improve mental, physical, and even psychological health!
But another incredible thing about tennis is just how many talented athletes have accomplished great things in their career. Across the globe, women and men alike have demonstrated unbelievable athleticism. It’s inspiring just to read about!
Together, let’s have a look at some of the top athletes who have ever lived, and what the most impressive tennis records are.
In this article, you’re going to learn:
- Which tennis players have the greatest ratios of wins to losses!
- Who won the most consecutive games of any player!
- How long the longest tennis match in history lasted!
- What it means to win a Golden Slam, and who did it!
- Who the youngest player to win a Grand Slam was, and more!
Are you ready to learn about the most impressive tennis records of all time? Then let’s jump right into it!
Who has the most consecutive wins in tennis?
To start with, we’re going to have a look at one of the most incredible tennis records of all.
But before looking at the greatest tennis athletes in history, it’s always good to remind yourself that tennis should be healthy, fun, and doesn’t have to be competitive.
Tennis is a fun and exhilarating sport, and, just like in all good sports, winning isn’t everything! It’s great exercise, a great way to make friends, and spend some time outside in the fresh air. In fact, to learn more of the great benefits of tennis, you can read this helpful article that goes into them!
For all the benefits of tennis, though, some players clearly got good at winning a lot of matches. There are so many ways to judge who’s a good player. One of those ways is to look at who had the longest winning streak. Let’s have a look at some of the longest winning streaks in tennis history!
In men’s tennis, the title of longest winning streak goes to Bjorn Borg – with an incredible 53 consecutive wins! What an impressive statistic! This meant that Borg was consistently winning between 1977 and 1978. But Borg isn’t the only male player with an impressive streak! Here are some other players who will go down in history for their consecutive wins:
Bjorn Borg – 53 consecutive wins
Guillermo Vilas – 46 consecutive wins
Novak Djokovic – 43 consecutive wins
Roger Federer – 42 consecutive wins
Pete Sampras – 39 consecutive wins
Thomas Muster – 35 consecutive wins
Ilie Nastase – 33 consecutive wins
Rafael Nadal – 32 consecutive wins
Rod Laver – 32 consecutive wins
In the world of women’s tennis, there are also some incredible streaks! In fact, the tennis player with the longest winning streak of all time was Martina Navratilova! Between 1984 and 1986 she won an incredible 74 matches in a row, setting the world record! And that’s not all – Navratilova also holds the second place record for her incredible streak of 58 consecutive wins in 1986. She also won 54 consecutive wins in 1983 – talk about a force to be reckoned with!
Not surprisingly, she’s just one of many women who have an incredible number of consecutive wins. Let’s have a look at a fuller list:
Martina Navratilova – 74 consecutive wins
Steffi Graf – 66 consecutive wins
Martina Navratilova – 58 consecutive wins
Margaret Court – 57 consecutive wins
Chris Evert – 55 consecutive wins
Martina Navratilova – 54 consecutive wins
Steffi Graf – 46 consecutive wins
Steffi Graf – 45 consecutive wins
You might notice that Steffi Graf, who was one of the greatest tennis players in history, had 3 different incredible winning streaks! One was in 1987, then again in 1988, and then another incredible streak in 1989!
Which player has the highest number of career singles titles?
Now that we’ve seen who has the greatest number of consecutive wins, you might think that it proves who the greatest players of all time were. But tennis isn’t always as simple as that.
In tennis, there are a lot of ways to rate the greatness of a player. Iconic technique or style can be one. Influence on other players can also be considered. Some players win huge championships from an early age. Some players stay on the top of their game for decades.
But of all the ways to rank a professional tennis player, here’s one of the easiest ways to do it: who has won the most titles in their career? Let’s look at both Women’s Tennis and Men’s Tennis!
In Men’s Tennis
For men, the top spot goes to Rafael Nadal! In 2022, he won two Grand Slam titles, putting him at a total of 22!
Tied for second place are Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, both with an impressive 20 Grand Slam titles.
Rodger Federer tops the list of ATP tour singles titles of the modern era with 103 ATP titles.
Rafael Nadal is a huge tennis star at the top of his game. If he’s inspired you as he has done with so many other players, maybe it’s time to lace up and perfect your technique with high quality tennis lessons!
In Women’s Tennis
In Women’s Tennis, the numbers are even more impressive!
Margaret Court holds the record, with 24 Grand Slam titles in her career! Following in 2nd place is Serena Williams with an incredible 23 titles, and in third is Steffi Graf with 22.
While she doesn’t have the world record for most titles, Graf has had an impressive career. She’s one of the greatest players ever to step onto a court, and her legacy won’t be forgotten anytime soon. If you want to know just how much Steffi Graf dominates as a player, just remember that she won one of the shortest games in history, in only 34 minutes. Talk about a decisive victory!
Steffi Graf won what is known as the Grand Slam – meaning that she won all four major championships in one year. She accomplished this in 1988, but that’s not all – she also won in the Olympics in that same year! Because of this achievement, a new term was coined – the Golden Slam, which occurs when a player wins both a Grand Slam and an Olympic Gold Medal in the same calendar year.
That was just the first time she won the Olympics – she did so a second time as well. When she ended her career in 1999, her achievements were legendary, and her career leaves a staggering legacy of excellence.
Who has the best singles win loss record?
One way to assess the career of a player is to look at what percentage of matches they win. Having a good win to loss ratio means that you’re winning more games than you’re losing. It’s always important to remember, though, that if you’re a new player – winning isn’t everything! It’s not always about winning the ATP Tour or the Roland Garros. Make sure that no matter what, you’re having fun! One of the best ways to make sure you’re playing your best and also having a great time is by using a professional tennis instructor!
Player | Wins | Losses | Rate of Wins |
Bjorn Borg | 141 | 16 | 89.8% |
Rafael Nadal | 226 | 33 | 87.3% |
Roger Federer | 325 | 52 | 86.2% |
Novak Djokovic | 237 | 39 | 85.9% |
Who has scored the most aces of any tennis player?
In tennis, an ace is a powerful move. It’s when a player serves a ball in such a way that their opponent can’t return it. An ace, therefore, always wins a point to the player. If you’re playing tennis and your opponents keep scoring aces on you, it might be a good time to look at this guide of helpful tennis tips!
Some players have gotten very good at serving aces. These players have turned it into a part of their entire tennis strategy in a match. But who has scored the most aces of all? Let’s have a look at the top ace-scorers in men’s tennis!
Ivo Karlovic comes in first, with an incredible 13,709 aces scored in his career!
John Isner is second, with 12,901 aces scored. John Isner has set 3 more incredible tennis records during his career – to find out what they are, keep reading!
Roger Federer is third, with 11,478 aces.
Feliciano Lopez is next with 10,041 aces scored during his career.
Sam Querrey comes in fifth with an incredible 8,686 aces!
Who was the youngest player to win a Grand Slam?
If you’ve just started lessons with an excellent coach, or maybe you’ve just enrolled your kids, you might be thinking the sky is the limit – and you’d be right!
There have been lots of young players who have made their mark on tennis history throughout the years. One of the most impressive of all is Martina Hingis!
In 1997, the Swiss tennis prodigy became the youngest player in history to win the Grand Slam title. She was only 16 at the time!
Hingis didn’t have a long career, but while she was playing she eventually won 5 Grand Slam singles trophies.
Of course it helps to be a young champion when your parents are so supportive of your tennis dreams. Maybe it was a lucky sign for the future that Martina Hingis was named after tennis legend Martina Navratilova.
While Hingis remains the youngest Grand Slam winner, here are some other players who won the tournament at an impressively young age:
Player | Age | Year |
Martina Hingis | 16 years, 177 days | 1997 |
Monica Seles | 16 years, 189 days | 1990 |
Tracy Austin | 16 years, 270 days | 1979 |
Maria Sharapova | 17 years, 75 days | 2004 |
Michael Chang | 17 years, 110 days | 1989 |
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario | 17 years, 174 days | 1989 |
Boris Becker | 17 years, 228 days | 1985 |
Mats Wilander | 17 years, 293 days | 1982 |
Bjorn Borg | 18 years, 10 days | 1874 |
Rafael Nadal | 19 years, 3 days | 2005 |
What is the longest tennis match?
While playing tennis can be exhilarating and fast-paced, the sport can depend a lot on stamina.
With many sports, there’s a pre-decided amount of time for a game to take before it goes into Overtime, or has some other method of resolution. In soccer, for example, if both teams tie, then the game will be ended by the referee and both sides will gain a point in the rankings.
Tennis, however, is different. There’s no limit on how long a tennis match may take. It all depends on how many games are required to win the match. Sometimes it can be over in under half an hour, and sometimes it can take much longer.
But when it comes to taking a long time, nothing compares to the Isner-Mahut match during 2010 Wimbledon Championships, also known as “the endless match”.
The match was played between Nicolas Mahut, who was French, and John Isner, who was American. There was no reason to think that this game would go down in the history books – it was only a first-round match in the Men’s Singles category. That’s right – it wasn’t even in the quarterfinals or semifinals. However, it was about to become famous!
It all started at 6:13 on June 22nd. The game continued and continued until, at 9:07 PM, it was getting too dark to play. So the players suspended the game until the next day, when they would start their fifth set.
On the second day, they started at 2:05, and played until, at 9:09 PM, it was getting too dark to play. At this point, the set was tied at 59 games all.
The next day, the game started up again at 3:40 PM, and, at 4:47, John Isner finally won the match.
The entire match took 11 hours and five minutes, requiring three days to complete, and a total of 183 games within the match. That meant that the Isner-Mahut match wasn’t just the longest running match in terms of time, but it was also had the greatest number of games of any match in history! By the end of the game, Isner had scored the most goals of any professional tennis match in history!
It’ll likely stay that way forever. In 2019, the rules were changed so that there could be tie-breakers at Wimbledon. This means that Wimbledon will never see another game that long! Just as well – imagine how exhausted John Isner and Nicolas Mahut must have been! I bet they’re grateful for the new rules about tiebreakers!
Do you have 11 hours to spare? Then you can watch the entire match for yourself right here!
What is the shortest tennis match in history?
Now that we’ve looked at the longest tennis match in history, you might be wondering – what lies at the complete opposite end of the spectrum? What match wins took the least amount of time?
When a tennis match takes a very long time, that usually means that the two sides are playing at close to each other’s level. In the example of Isner and Mahut, the game lasted so long because there wasn’t a player who was clearly better than the other.
When it comes to short games, however, the opposite is true. The shortest games usually indicate that the players are not at the same skill level. Here’s a rundown of some of the shortest tennis matches in history:
Length of Match | Year | Players | Final Score |
18:00 | 1946 | Jack Harper beat J. Sandiford, played at the Surrey Open | 6-0, 6-0 |
20:00 | 1969 | Susan Tutt beat Marion Bandy, played at Wimbledon | 6-0, 6-0 |
24:00 | 1927 | Helen Wills beat Joan Fry, played at the Wightman Cup | 6-2, 6-0 |
24:00 | 1963 | Margaret Court beat Darlene Hard, Eastern Grass Court Championships | 6-1, 6-1 |
25:00 | 2001 | Francisco Clavet beat Jiang Shan at the Heineken Open | 6-0, 6,0 |
28:00 | 2014 | Jarkko Nieminen beat Bernard Tomic at the Miami Masters | 6-0, 6-1 |
34:00 | 1988 | Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva during the French Open | 6-0, 6-0 |
36:00 | 1881 | William Renshaw beat John Hartley during the Wimbledon Championships Final | 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 |
See how many 6-0s there are in that chart? That shows you just how unevenly matched these players were! Just because you’ve reached the masters tournaments, doesn’t always mean you’re in for a good match!
Who has won all four Grand Slam Championships in the same year?
To win a Grand Slam, a player has to rise to victory at all four major “Grand Slam” championships in the same calendar year. This is an incredibly rare and impressive achievement – some of the world’s greatest tennis players haven’t managed to accomplish this.
The four major championships that make up the Grand Slam are the Australian Open, the French Open (also known as Roland Garros), the US Open, and, of course, Wimbledon.
To start with, let’s look at the women who have accomplished this incredible feat:
The first female singles tennis player to win all four major championships within a calendar year was Maureen Connolly. This American player set the impressive tennis record in 1953.
The world of Women’s Tennis would have to wait for 17 years to see another Grand Slam, when Australian player Margaret Court accomplished it in 1970.
The most recent Women’s Tennis singles star to win all four major championships within a calendar year was Steffi Graf in 1988. Her victory was especially impressive, because not only did she win all four major championships – she also won the Olympic gold medal that year! She was the first player to accomplish this feat, which became known as a Golden Slam.
You can see her winning moments for yourself right here:
As you can see, women’s tennis has a rich history of athletic accomplishment.
Now let’s have a look at the male tennis singles players who have won a Grand Slam!
Amazingly, only two men have ever won all four major championships within the same calendar year. What’s even more impressive than the fact that only two men have accomplished this, is that one of them did it twice!
The first male tennis player to win the Grand Slam was Don Budge. This American player dominated the tennis world by winning all four titles in 1938.
The second player from Men’s Tennis to win a Grand Slam as a single was the Australian tennis legend Ron Laver. Laver amazed the world when he won the Grand Slam in 1962, and then, shockingly, he won it once more in 1969!
Since winning a true “Grand Slam” is quite rare, there are other forms of “Slam” that players can win. For example, let’s look at who has won a Non-calendar Year Grand Slam.
Non-calendar year Grand Slams
A non-calendar year Grand Slam is when a player wins all four championships, but not within the same calendar year. In other words, these players held all four major championship titles simultaneously, but it didn’t all fall within the same calendar year:
Martina Navratilova – between 1983 and 1984.
Steffi Graf – between 1993 and 1994
Serena Williams – between 2002 and 2003, and again between 2014 and 2015
Novak Djokovic – between 2015 and 2016.
Both in Grand Slams and Non-calendar Year Grand Slams, the women outnumber the men.
Who has won all four Grand Slam Championships over their career?
Winning a Grand Slam or a Calendar-Year Grand Slam are both staggering feats of athleticism. The ATP (or Association of Tennis Professionals), which governs men’s tennis, and the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association), which governs women’s tennis, have only seen a few players achieve it. However, another incredibly impressive benchmark for a tennis player is to achieve what’s known as a Career Grand Slam.
A Career Grand Slam is accomplished when a player wins all four major championships over the course of their entire career. This requires persistence, dedication, and some impressive athletics!
Player | Australian Open | French Open | Wimbledon | US Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fred Perry | 1934 | 1935 | 1934 | 1933 |
Don Budge | 1938 | 1938 | 1937 | 1937 |
Maureen Connolly | 1953 | 1953 | 1952 | 1951 |
Doris Hart | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1954 |
Shirley Fry Irvin | 1957 | 1951 | 1956 | 1956 |
Rod Laver | 1960, 1962 | 1962, 1969 | 1961, 1962 | 1962, 1969 |
Margaret Court | 1960, 1961, 1962 | 1962, 1964, 1969 | 1963, 1965, 1970 | 1962, 1965, 1969 |
Roy Emerson | 1961, 1963 | 1963, 1967 | 1964, 1965 | 1961, 1964 |
Billie Jean King | 1968 | 1972 | 1966 | 1967 |
Chris Evert | 1982, 1984 | 1974, 1975 | 1974, 1976 | 1975,1976 |
Martina Navratilova | 1981, 1983 | 1982, 1984 | 1978, 1979 | 1983, 1984 |
Steffi Graf | 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994 | 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995 | 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992 | 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995 |
Andre Agassi | 1995 | 1999 | 1992 | 1994 |
Serena Williams | 2003, 2005, 2007 | 2002, 2013, 2015 | 2002, 2003, 2009 | 1999, 2002, 2008 |
Roger Federer | 2004 | 2009 | 2003 | 2004 |
Maria Sharapova | 2008 | 2012 | 2004 | 2006 |
Rafael Nadal | 2009, 2022 | 2005, 2006 | 2008, 2010 | 2010, 2013 |
Novak Djokovic | 2008, 2011 | 2016, 2021 | 2011, 2014 | 2011, 2015 |
You might have noticed that Steffi Graf has done this more times than any other player in history! No wonder this guy wanted to marry her!
Feeling inspired by all these incredible players? Maybe it’s time to lace up your shoes and try tennis lessons for yourself! Maybe you’ll find yourself on your way to win a Career Grand Slam, like all the athletes listed above! But whether or not you win a lot of matches, tennis still has amazing health benefits that can help many aspects of your life! Have a look at this article to see what you need to get started!
Getting Inspired?
Now you’ve learned about some incredible feats of athleticism! From grass to clay court, from the US Open to Wimbledon – all around the world, tennis masters have raised the bar of greatness!
Of course, one thing that’s exciting about tennis is that it’s still going on around us all the time. In every city, you can find tennis fans, cheering on their favourite athletes!
There will be more exciting athletes setting even more fantastic records in the years to come! They’ll inspire a new generation of players, and the wonderful tradition of tennis can continue.
Maybe this list has inspired you, and you’re thinking it’s time for you to lace up and try tennis for yourself. The great news is that the only eligibility you need to play tennis is a willingness to learn and have some fun. Tennis is a great sport to take up, no matter your age. You can learn without spending much money, and tennis can become a really great way to meet friends in the tennis community.
Now that you’re inspired, you’re all ready to talk to your own instructor. Get started on tennis lessons today, by enrolling in Tennis Pro Now!
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You’re going to have a blast with this fast-paced game! Happy serving, and stay healthy!
