Top 45 All-Time Career Clay Court Players

AS OF: Feb 10, 2003 Singles Clay Court Career - Top 100
With 25 or more tournaments
Current Top 10ers in Bold

% Name Losses Country Wins #OfClayEventsPlayed


.919 1 STEFFI GRAF 23 GER 261 199
.916 2 CHRIS EVERT 8 USA 87 75
.863 3 MONICA SELES 22 USA 139 179
.850 4 NA LI 3 CHN 17 44
.833 5 JULIE DITTY 3 USA 15 35
.817 6 MARTINA HINGIS 21 SUI 94 148
.811 7 GISELA DULKO 10 ARG 43 34
.807 8 MARTINA NAVRATILOVA 23 USA 96 147
.806 9 MAL-SIM PARK 6 KOR 25 28
.805 10 JU-YEON CHOI 8 KOR 33 51
.800 11 JUSTINE HENIN-HARDENNE 19 BEL 76 89
.800 12 MYRIAM CASANOVA 12 SUI 48 29
.800 13 ASHLEY HARKLEROAD 5 USA 20 34
.796 14 GABRIELA SABATINI 51 ARG 199 208
.795 15 CONCHITA MARTINEZ 74 ESP 287 281
.792 16 JIN-YOUNG CHOI 5 KOR 19 27
.786 17 SERENA WILLIAMS 9 USA 33 66
.781 18 VENUS WILLIAMS 14 USA 50 98
.773 19 MA. EMILIA SALERNI 20 ARG 68 60
.769 20 VERA ZVONAREVA 12 RUS 40 31
.769 21 TIAN TIAN SUN 6 CHN 20 40
.765 22 ARANTXA SANCHEZ-VICARIO 105 ESP 342 329
.759 23 HESTER WITVOET 7 NED 22 41
.755 24 EDINA GALLOVITS 23 ROM 71 34
.752 25 LINDSAY DAVENPORT 27 USA 82 200
.750 26 BONNIE GADUSEK 4 USA 12 31
.750 27 KEIRSTEN ALLEY 3 USA 9 33
.750 27 DIANA SREBROVIC 3 CAN 9 27
.750 29 KRISTINA KRASZEWSKI 1 USA 3 40
.746 30 KIM CLIJSTERS 17 BEL 50 82
.733 31 CLAUDIA HERNANDEZ 12 MEX 33 43
.732 32 MA. LUCIANA REYNARES 15 ARG 41 29
.730 33 SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA 17 RUS 46 30
.727 34 DUYGU AKSIT 3 TUR 8 31
.726 35 MIRJANA LUCIC 17 CRO 45 75
.723 36 JENNIFER CAPRIATI 38 USA 99 165
.721 37 LUCILA BECERRA 17 MEX 44 65
.719 38 MANUELA MALEEVA-FRAGNIERE 43 SUI 110 160
.717 39 BARBARA MULEJ 58 SLO 147 91
.715 40 PAOLA SUAREZ 88 ARG 221 195
.714 41 MA. JOSE SANCHEZ ALAYETO 18 ESP 45 31
.714 42 ELENA BOVINA 12 RUS 30 77
.714 43 MARICRIS FERNANDEZ 4 PHI 10 41
.714 44 HIROMI YOSHIHARA 2 JPN 5 30
.710 45 MARY PIERCE 62 FRA 152 204

What was Monica's record on clay pre-1993?

It's a bit of a surprise to see Steffi at the top.

Now who said Venus and Serena can't play on clay??:o

Vera at #20!!! :bounce:

Vera #20

Vamos :D

Originally posted by Sam L
What was Monica's record on clay pre-1993?



70-4

1988: 0-0
1989: 10-1 (Steffi Graf)
1990: 22-0
1991: 19-2 (Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini)
1992: 19-1 (Gabriela Sabatini)

94% OMG! :o

Let me see, she lost to Graf (2 times) and Sabatini (2 times).

That's all? :eek:

Justine Henin at 11. :)

thats frightning

I didn't expect Martina N. at #8... well #5 when you take out the schlubs who shouldn't be there.

Ashley harkleroad is higher than Conchita martinez? something must be really wrong with this stat? do we have a list of clay tournaments won by each player to see a comparison of how players actually did in terms of titles

The stats are screwed because 1) There's players with far too little matches to be considered and 2) Some of these players' results are only in challengers.

The stats aren't screwed; misleading perhaps. All they did was list the players in order of winning percentage on clay over their careers.

Wether or not one wants to use this as the sole criteria for their judgement as to who the "all time career clay couters" is a different discussion altogether.

I'm confused though - did Evert not win something like 125 straight matches on clay? Why are they not all counted? :confused:

I say nothing ;)

I don't think the headline "Top 45 All-Time Career Clay Court Players" is a good headline.

You have Martina Hingis ahead of Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati. Now, techincally those three will be considered *better* clay players because they won the French, something that Hingis failed to do.

one could post the Grass court records, and have Player Z who has never won Wimbledon, but got to numerous semis, and won a bunch of warm ups. Vs. a Player like Venus who has won 2 Wimbledons, be ranked LOWER. Clearly, Venus is the better grass courter.

Just my two cents.

And Steffi said she hate clay ;)

Did Helen Keller calculate these statistics?

Chrissie Evert had a 125-match winning streak on clay. And she's a 7-time French Open champion.

Let's give her some props.

:wavey:

MOnica!! :eek:

Originally posted by IcePrincess
Did Helen Keller calculate these statistics?

Chrissie Evert had a 125-match winning streak on clay. And she's a 7-time French Open champion.

Let's give her some props.

:wavey:

yes exactly! I mean, are we really going to say "Graf was a better clay courter then Evert"?? Please.

PS: H2H between Graf/Evert.
Graf leads 8-6
Clay: Chris Evert (USA) leads 3:1;)

Originally posted by bcoene
Justine Henin at 11. :)


:bounce:

Originally posted by IcePrincess
Did Helen Keller calculate these statistics?

Chrissie Evert had a 125-match winning streak on clay. And she's a 7-time French Open champion.

Let's give her some props.

:wavey:

Exactly! I think Chris has a better winning percentage on clay. Maybe I am not reading these stats correctly...perhapsbecausetheylooklikethis!!!!

Its pretty misleading...Venus and Serena have only played 14 and 9 clay court tourneys respectively. Others, like Martinez, Sanchez-vicario have played 75+.

1. Chrissie
2. Steffi
3. Monica

GO MONICA!
I wonder if Venus is top 5 on all-time hardcourt list

this is absolutely useless :rolleyes:

Originally posted by tennisIlove09
I don't think the headline "Top 45 All-Time Career Clay Court Players" is a good headline.

You have Martina Hingis ahead of Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati. Now, techincally those three will be considered *better* clay players because they won the French, something that Hingis failed to do.

one could post the Grass court records, and have Player Z who has never won Wimbledon, but got to numerous semis, and won a bunch of warm ups. Vs. a Player like Venus who has won 2 Wimbledons, be ranked LOWER. Clearly, Venus is the better grass courter.

Just my two cents.
Yeah Serena won the French Open but Hingis was far more consistent on clay. I mean she made finals in '97, semis in '98, finals in '99, semis in '00, and semis in '01! Serena's are okay but not better than Hingis.

Same as with Jenny!

Finally! Na Li gets the credit she deserves!

Originally posted by england_rules
Yeah Serena won the French Open but Hingis was far more consistent on clay. I mean she made finals in '97, semis in '98, finals in '99, semis in '00, and semis in '01! Serena's are okay but not better than Hingis.

Same as with Jenny!

They have played a lot more matches on clay, Serena has played VERY FEW. Martina and Jen have played more than twice the amount than Serena, they have a better chance of improving because they have gotten better as their career progressed.

Serena has played 42 matches on clay TOTAL. She won 33 of them and has won the only GS on clay.

Martina has played 125 matches on clay, three times the amount of Serena.

Jennifer has played 137 matches on clay.

My point being, players only get better on a surface as they play it more. As Serena progresses, she will probably surpass Hingis in these rankings.

Originally posted by england_rules
Yeah Serena won the French Open but Hingis was far more consistent on clay. I mean she made finals in '97, semis in '98, finals in '99, semis in '00, and semis in '01! Serena's are okay but not better than Hingis.

Same as with Jenny!

consistency doesnt always win you grand slams...obviously look who ends up with a french open title and who doesnt...

Originally posted by VeNuS FoReVeR
They have played a lot more matches on clay, Serena has played VERY FEW. Martina and Jen have played more than twice the amount than Serena, they have a better chance of improving because they have gotten better as their career progressed.

Serena has played 42 matches on clay TOTAL. She won 33 of them and has won the only GS on clay.

Martina has played 125 matches on clay, three times the amount of Serena.

Jennifer has played 137 matches on clay.

My point being, players only get better on a surface as they play it more. As Serena progresses, she will probably surpass Hingis in these rankings.

Exactly. Let's wait til after Serena plays her clay court tournies this year...then after next year..and so on...until Serena also has played 125 matches (like Martina) or 137 matches (like Jen) on clay. Then we should compare those three's succuss on clay.

Originally posted by tennisIlove09
I don't think the headline "Top 45 All-Time Career Clay Court Players" is a good headline.

You have Martina Hingis ahead of Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati. Now, techincally those three will be considered *better* clay players because they won the French, something that Hingis failed to do.

one could post the Grass court records, and have Player Z who has never won Wimbledon, but got to numerous semis, and won a bunch of warm ups. Vs. a Player like Venus who has won 2 Wimbledons, be ranked LOWER. Clearly, Venus is the better grass courter.

Just my two cents.

Winning one French Title does not neccessarily constitute being a better clay court player than someone who never won the title - this is an extremely simplistic interpretation of statistics.

Yes Serena won the French Open 2002, most definitely surpassing any SINGLE achievement that Hingis has on her clay court resume. However you obviously forget that before 2002 Serena had not progressed beyond the quarterfinals of any claycourt tournament. Even today she has only been beyond the quarterfinals of claycourt events 3 times. Yes I recognise that she has played very little on clay, but to me this is all the more reason to rank Hingis a head of her.

Serena has two clay court titles, Hingis has won 2 titles each at the Family Circle Cup and Hamburg, an Italian Open and a German Open. Combined with her 2 Finals and 3 semifinal appearances at Roland Garros I find it hard to rank Serena greater than Hingis on the basis of one title. If Serena were never to play or win a claycourt match again (which I realise is highly unlikely), Hingis would be considered superior based on the totality of their records. of course Serena can surpass the achievements of Martina on clay in the future. A second win at RG would just about do it.

And I do not rank jennifer a superior clay court player to Martina either.

No single grandslam can outway a compilation of high callibre achievements. Are we then to say that Mary Pierce is defintively a greater claycourter than Hingis? Or Iva Majoli? or that Mary Pierce is a greater claycourt exponent than Conchita Martinez? Sometimes it is not as simple as adding GS numbers up.

I am pretty sure martina would love to be the worst clayplayer in the world with one or a few french open titles then the best without a french open title. so with other words she would love to have been miss I hate clay;) (another things she always denied. poor marty ;))

Let's hope Monica rediscovers this form on clay that got her so many titles back when...