What do Lottie Dod, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Maureen Connolly, Steffi Graf, and Margaret Court all have in common?
All can claim to be the best player of all time - through a certain birthday.
Meet the most accomplished women’s tennis players of all time for all ages. Our ranking is based on the most major championships won at each age.
Who were the greatest women’s tennis players at each age?
Age 15 – Charlotte “Lottie” Dod
Dod pops up in Google searches more than any other tennis player from the 1800s as the answer to “who is the youngest player to win a Grand Slam?” Dod cemented her place in history as the answer to that trivia question when she won Wimbledon at age 15 in 1887. True, it was just the fourth Wimbledon event for women. True, there were only six players in the event.
However, subsequent events show Dod was an athlete worthy of a historic achievement. She eventually won Wimbledon five times. She was an accomplished golfer who twice won the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship. And she was good enough at archery to win a silver medal at the 1908 Olympics.
Age 16 – Martina Hingis
Hingis won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open in 1997 at the age of 16. The Swiss Miss remains the only player to capture three majors by the age of 16 and the youngest player to hold the No. 1 spot in the WTA rankings.
Hingis would have captured the calendar-year Grand Slam if not for a more-inexplicable-with-time loss against unheralded one-slam wonder Iva Majoli in the French Open final.
Age 17 – Monica Seles
Seles followed up her breakthrough victory at the French Open at age 16 in 1990 with the most productive age-17 season in tennis history. Seles won the Australian, French, and U.S. titles in 1991 (she missed Wimbledon due to injury). At the time, she was the youngest player ever to ascend to No. 1 in the WTA rankings.
Age 19 – Maureen Connolly
Connolly won the last nine majors of her career – and her career ended while she was a teenager. Connolly is the only player to amass nine major titles before turning 20. She won the first calendar-year Grand Slam in women’s tennis history at age 18 in 1953. Two weeks after she won Wimbledon in 1954, Connolly suffered a career-ending leg injury in a horseback riding accident.
Age 24 – Steffi Graf
Before her 25th birthday, Graf amassed 15 major titles, the only calendar-year Golden Slam (all four majors plus the Olympic gold medal) in tennis history in 1988, plus a non-calendar-year Grand Slam – the Steffi Slam, if you will – over the last three majors of 1993 plus the Australian Open in 1994. No player has accomplished more through age 24 (and, for that matter, ages 25-29).
Age 30 – Margaret Court
Court won the Australian and French titles at age 30 in the opening months of 1973 for her 22nd and 23rd major titles. If you’re keeping score, Serena Williams is the only other women’s player with 23 majors, and she won her 23rd major at age 35. Court celebrated her 31st birthday in July and then won the U.S. Open in September to run her career singles majors total to a still-record 24.