WeSportFr affords you its subjective rating of the very best tennis gamers from the 2nd half of the twentieth century to the current day. Today, we’re attacking the Top 10 with names every extra prestigious than the final like Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles or Martina Hingis!
10th: Maria Sharapova
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Known for her coldness on and off the court docket, she has been some of the charismatic gamers on the ladies’s circuit over the previous 15 years. In 2004, she turned the primary Russian to win Wimbledon when she was solely 17 years previous. Then in 2008, she was topped on the Australian Open. She additionally received the US Open 2006 in addition to the 2012 and 2014 editions of Roland-Garros. Unfortunately, his profession was stopped in 2016 due to a 15-month suspension for doping. She won’t be able to regain her rating afterwards due to quite a few shoulder accidents. She will then announce in February 2020 the tip of her profession on the age of 32. The participant launched her autobiography in 2017 “Unstoppable” where she delivers herself for the first time in her career.
9th: Martina Hingis
Photo credit: Eurosport
The Swiss player is quite simply the record holder for the youngest winner of a Grand Slam title in the Open era, and the youngest world number one in history (16 years, 6 months and 1 day). She won 5 Grand Slam singles titles but not the Roland-Garros tournament although she reached the final of the Paris tournament twice. She put her career on hold from 2003 to 2006 because of injuries. After being tested positive for cocaine in 2007, she took another hiatus to dedicate herself to double from 2013 to 2017.
The Roland-Garros final in 1999 against Steffi Graf was one of the most memorable finals in women’s tennis. As she discusses a track on clay, she crosses the net after the point had already been awarded to Steffi Graf. She almost got disqualified from this final by the referee at the time. This is when the German returns to the match and wins the trophy. Martina Hingis then ends up in tears in her chair. That day, the public had chosen their camp and it was that of legend Steffi Graf. Hingis will even leave the court under the whistles of the Parisian public. Graf would later say that it was the craziest match of his career.
8th: Justine Hénin
Photo credit: AFP
One of the most beautiful setbacks on the women’s circuit. She dominated all her opponents from 2003 to 2008 by winning 43 singles titles including 7 Grand Slams, 2 Masters and 1 Olympic gold medal. After a major elbow injury in 2010, she decided to retire from competition in 2011. Member of the Hall of Fame since 2016, she is now a TV consultant and takes care of her foundation “Justine for Kids” and her academy. of tennis. Her rivalry with compatriot Kim Clijsters has always pushed her to the top and now claims that she wouldn’t have had the same career if Clijsters hadn’t played at the same time as her.
7th: Margaret Smith-Court
Photo credit: Bert Verhoeff
Holder of the record for Grand Slam wins in singles (24) ahead of Serena Williams, her career took place between the “amateur era” and the Open era (1968). Margaret Court is the only player to have won all four Grand Slam tournaments at least twice, in singles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles. She also won 4 Fed Cups with Australia. The Australian Grand Slam named one of its courts “Margaret Court Arena” in her honor. But some players want to rename him because of pronounced homophobic remarks on the part of the Australian. Today, Margaret Court is no longer really welcome on tennis events …
6th: Monica Seles
Photo credit: SportsIllustrated
The player of Yugoslav origin, and naturalized American in 1994, won 9 Grand Slam titles including Roland-Garros at the age of 16. She is known for her particular technique and very aggressive game: she played with both hands on the forehand and backhand side. In 1993, the year she turned 19, when she was playing her quarter-final at the Hamburg tournament, a spectator broke through the security barriers and stabbed her in the back. Despite a superficial injury, the psychological trauma is itself profound. She fell into depression for 2 years before returning to competition in 1995 and then triumphed 1 year later at the Australian Open for her final coronation in a Major. She ended her career in 2003 due to a stress fracture in her foot.
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