I thought it would be interesting to compare the active GS singles winners to their better known historical counterparts.<br />THey are ranked by number of GS titles, then percentage winning GS finals. That is, I'm rewarding those who win when they make the final.
I could have gone the other way, of course. Who's better? A player who makes 12 GS finals, and only wins 2? Or a player who only makes 6 GS finals, and wins five?
The number in parentheses is the players rank alltime by GS wins. The missing numbers are pre-Open era players. Too many people haven't heard of too many players. From the pre-Open era I included Wills Moody, Connolly, Lenglen, Bueno and Gibson.
rank rec.
(01) 24-05 Margaret Smith Court
(02) 22-09 Steffi Graf
(03) 19-03 Helen Wills Moody
(04) 18-14 Martina Navratilova
(05) 18-16 Chris Evert
(06) 12-06 Billie Jean King
(07) 09-00 Maureen Connolly
(08) 09-04 Monica Seles
(09) 08-00 Suzanne Lenglen
(10)
(11)
(12) 07-05 Maria Bueno
(13) 07-11 Evonne Goolagong
(22) 5-2 Althea Gibson
(25) 5-6 Martina Hingis
(28) 4-1 Venus Williams
(30) 4-4 Hana Mandlikova
(32) 4-8 A. Sanchez Vicario
(34) 3-0 Virginia Wade
(39) 3-2 Lindsay Davenport
(45) 2-0 Tracy Austin
(47) 2-0 Jennifer Capriati
(56) 2-2 Mary Pierce
I could have gone the other way, of course. Who's better? A player who makes 12 GS finals, and only wins 2? Or a player who only makes 6 GS finals, and wins five?
The number in parentheses is the players rank alltime by GS wins. The missing numbers are pre-Open era players. Too many people haven't heard of too many players. From the pre-Open era I included Wills Moody, Connolly, Lenglen, Bueno and Gibson.
rank rec.
(01) 24-05 Margaret Smith Court
(02) 22-09 Steffi Graf
(03) 19-03 Helen Wills Moody
(04) 18-14 Martina Navratilova
(05) 18-16 Chris Evert
(06) 12-06 Billie Jean King
(07) 09-00 Maureen Connolly
(08) 09-04 Monica Seles
(09) 08-00 Suzanne Lenglen
(10)
(11)
(12) 07-05 Maria Bueno
(13) 07-11 Evonne Goolagong
(22) 5-2 Althea Gibson
(25) 5-6 Martina Hingis
(28) 4-1 Venus Williams
(30) 4-4 Hana Mandlikova
(32) 4-8 A. Sanchez Vicario
(34) 3-0 Virginia Wade
(39) 3-2 Lindsay Davenport
(45) 2-0 Tracy Austin
(47) 2-0 Jennifer Capriati
(56) 2-2 Mary Pierce