Martina Hingis is a Swiss former professional tennis player. Hingis is the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and attain a world No. 1 ranking. She spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1, holding both No. 1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks. She won five major singles titles, 13 major women's doubles titles, and seven major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 25 major titles. In addition, she won the season-ending WTA Finals twice in singles and thrice in doubles, an Olympic silver medal in doubles, and a record 17 Tier I singles titles.
Stefanie Maria Graf is a German former professional tennis player. Widely referred to as one of the greatest professional tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, the second-most since the start of the Open Era in 1968 and third-most of all-time. In 1988, Graf became the first tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam by winning all four major singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. Furthermore, she is the only tennis player, male or female, to have won each major tournament at least four times.
Martina Navratilova is a Czech–American former professional tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, Navratilova won 18 major singles titles, 31 major women's doubles titles, and 10 major mixed doubles titles, for a combined total of 59 major titles, the most in the Open Era. Alongside Chris Evert, her greatest rival, Navratilova dominated women's tennis in the 1970s and 1980s.
Christine Marie Evert, known as Chris Evert Lloyd from 1979 to 1987, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. Evert won 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record six US Open titles. She was ranked world No. 1 for 260 weeks, and was the year-end world No. 1 singles player seven times. Alongside Martina Navratilova, her greatest rival, Evert dominated women's tennis in the 1970s and 1980s.
Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández is a Puerto Rican former professional tennis player. Fernández won 17 major doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States, and reached the world No. 1 ranking in doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 17 in 1991. Since retiring from the professional tour in 1997 at the age of 33, Fernández has been a tennis coach and entrepreneur. She now shares her knowledge of doubles with tennis enthusiasts throughout the US by conducting Master Doubles with Gigi Clinics and Doubles Boot Camps. Fernández is the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Hana Mandlíková is a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia who later obtained Australian citizenship. During her career, she won four Grand Slam singles titles: the 1980 Australian Open, 1981 French Open, 1985 US Open, and the 1987 Australian Open. She was also the runner-up at four Grand Slam singles events, including the Wimbledon finals of 1981 and 1986, and won one Grand Slam women's doubles title, at the 1989 US Open with Martina Navratilova. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994, she is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Monica Seles is a retired professional tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. A former world No. 1, she won nine Grand Slam singles titles, eight of them as a teenager while representing Yugoslavia, and the final one while representing the United States.
Tracy Ann Austin Holt is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. She won three Grand Slam titles: the women's singles titles at the 1979 and 1981 US Opens, and the mixed doubles title at the 1980 Wimbledon Championships. Additionally, she won the WTA Tour Championships in 1980 and the year-ending Toyota Championships in 1981, both in singles.
Jana Novotná was a Czech professional tennis player. She played a serve and volley game, an increasingly rare style of play among women during her career. Novotná won the women's singles title at Wimbledon in 1998, and was runner-up in three other majors. Novotná also won 12 major women's doubles titles, four major mixed doubles titles, and three Olympic medals. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in 1997, and held the No. 1 ranking in doubles for 67 weeks.
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini is an Argentine-Italian former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 titles. In singles, Sabatini won the 1990 US Open, the Tour Finals in 1988 and 1994, and was runner-up at Wimbledon 1991, the 1988 US Open, and the silver medalist at the 1988 Olympics. In doubles, Sabatini won Wimbledon in 1988 partnering Steffi Graf, and reached three French Open finals. Among Open era players who did not reach the world No. 1 ranking, Sabatini has the most wins over reigning world No. 1 ranked players. In 2006, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and in 2018 Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 20th-greatest female player of the preceding 50 years.
Natallia Marataŭna Zvierava is a former professional tennis player from Belarus. She was the first major athlete in the Soviet Union to demand publicly that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings. The team of Zvereva and Gigi Fernández won more women's doubles titles and Grand Slam women's doubles championships than any other team since Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver.
Magdalena Georgieva Maleeva is a Bulgarian former professional tennis player. She played on the WTA Tour competing in singles and doubles, from April 1989 to October 2005 and has won ten career singles titles. Her best WTA singles ranking was world No. 4.
Helena Suková is a former professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. During her career, she won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles, 9 of them in women's doubles and 5 of them in mixed doubles. She also was a four-time Grand Slam singles runner-up and won 10 singles titles and 69 doubles titles.
Amy Frazier is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won eight singles and four doubles titles on the WTA Tour. On February 27, 1995 she achieved a career-high singles ranking of No. 13, while on March 29, 1993 she achieved a career-high doubles ranking of No. 24.
Betty Flippina Stöve is a Dutch former professional tennis player. She is best remembered for reaching the ladies' singles final, the ladies' doubles final and the mixed doubles final during the same year at Wimbledon in 1977. She also won ten Grand Slam titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles.
Kathryn "Kathy" Jordan is a former American tennis player. During her career, she won seven Grand Slam titles, five of them in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. She also was the 1983 Australian Open women's singles runner-up and won three singles titles and 42 doubles titles.
Lori McNeil is an American tennis coach and former top 10 professional tennis player. McNeil was a singles semifinalist at the US Open in 1987 and Wimbledon in 1994, a women's doubles finalist at the Australian Open in 1987 with Zina Garrison and French Open mixed-doubles winner in 1988 with Jorge Lozano.
Dianne Fromholtz Balestrat is an Australian former professional tennis player who reached a highest singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1979.
The 1985 Virginia Slims World Championship Series was the 15th season since the foundation of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced in March 1985, and concluded in March 1986 after 52 events.
This article covers the period 1884 to present. Before the beginning of the Open era in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tennis tournaments, including the four Grand Slams. Wimbledon, the oldest of the majors, was founded in 1877, followed by the US Open in 1881, the French Open in 1891, and the Australian Open in 1905. Beginning in 1905 and continuing to the present day, all four majors have been played yearly, with the exception of the two World Wars, 1986 for the Australian Open, and 2020 for Wimbledon. The Australian Open is the first major of the year (January), followed by the French Open (May–June), Wimbledon (June–July), and US Open (August–September).
United States 
