This article presents top ten lists of female singles tennis players, as ranked by various official and non-official ranking authorities throughout the history of the sport.
The article is split into two sections: 1921–1974, and since 1975 when the first official WTA rankings were published, for ease of navigation.
A. Wallis Myers [1] ( The Daily Telegraph ) | B. H. Liddell Hart [2] ( The Times ) |
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A. Wallis Myers [3] |
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A. Wallis Myers [3] | B. H. Liddell Hart [4] |
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A. Wallis Myers [3] |
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A. Wallis Myers [3] | Bill Tilden (American Lawn Tennis) [5] |
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A. Wallis Myers [3] | Suzanne Lenglen [6] |
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A. Wallis Myers [3] | Bill Tilden [7] |
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A. Wallis Myers [8] |
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A. Wallis Myers [9] | F. Gordon Lowe [10] ( The Scotsman ) | Jean Samazeuilh [11] ( Le Miroir des sports ) |
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A. Wallis Myers [12] | Pierre Gillou [13] ( L'Auto ) | Bill Tilden [13] |
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A. Wallis Myers [14] | Pierre Gillou [15] | Didier Poulain (L'Auto) [15] | Bill Tilden [16] |
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A. Wallis Myers [17] | Pierre Gillou [18] |
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A. Wallis Myers [19] | Pierre Gillou [20] |
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A. Wallis Myers [21] | Pierre Gillou [22] | Ned Potter (American Lawn Tennis) [23] |
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A. Wallis Myers [24] | Pierre Gillou [25] | Ned Potter [23] | The Times [26] |
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A. Wallis Myers [27] | Pierre Gillou [28] | Ned Potter [29] | The Times [30] | Harry Hopman [31] ( Melbourne Herald ) | Mervyn Weston [32] ( The Australasian ) | Fred Perry [33] |
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A. Wallis Myers [34] | Pierre Gillou [35] | Ned Potter [36] | The Times [37] | Harry Hopman [38] [39] | Mervyn Weston [40] | Alfred Chave (Brisbane Telegraph) [41] |
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A. Wallis Myers [42] | Pierre Gillou [43] | Ned Potter [44] | F. Gordon Lowe [45] | The Times [45] | American Lawn Tennis [44] | Mervyn Weston [46] | Pierre Goldschmidt (L'Auto) [47] | Alfred Chave [48] | G. H. McElhone [45] ( The Sydney Morning Herald ) | "International" ( The Referee ). [49] |
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American Lawn Tennis [50] | Pierre Gillou [51] | Ned Potter [52] | F. Gordon Lowe [53] | The Times [54] | Alfred Chave [55] | G. H. McElhone [56] |
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no world rankings (World War II)
Pierre Gillou; [57] Ned Potter [23] | Harry Hopman [58] |
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Pierre Gillou [59] | Ned Potter [60] [23] | John Olliff [3] (The Daily Telegraph) |
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Pierre Gillou [61] | Ned Potter [62] | John Olliff [3] |
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Pierre Gillou [63] | Ned Potter [23] | John Olliff [64] |
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Ned Potter [65] [23] | John Olliff [66] |
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Pierre Gillou [67] | Ned Potter [68] [23] |
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Ned Potter [23] | Lance Tingay [69] (The Daily Telegraph) |
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Ned Potter [70] [lower-alpha 1] (World Tennis) | Lance Tingay [3] |
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Ned Potter [72] | Lance Tingay [73] | New York Times (panel of experts) [74] [75] |
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Ned Potter [76] | Lance Tingay [3] | L'Équipe |
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Ned Potter [78] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) |
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Ned Potter [79] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) |
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Ned Potter [80] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) |
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Ned Potter [82] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) | Denis Lalanne (L'Équipe) |
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Ned Potter [83] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) | Ulrich Kaiser [84] (panel of 13 experts) | Margaret Smith |
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Ned Potter [85] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) | Ulrich Kaiser [86] (panel of 13 experts) |
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Ned Potter [87] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) [88] | Ulrich Kaiser [89] (panel of 14 experts) | Margaret Smith [90] |
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Ned Potter [91] | Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) | Ulrich Kaiser [92] (panel of 16 experts) | Sport za Rubezhom [93] |
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Lance Tingay [94] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) | Joseph McCauley [95] (World Tennis) | Bruce Walkley ( Herald Sun ) | Pierre de Thier [96] | Sport In The USSR [97] |
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Lance Tingay [3] | British Lawn Tennis (readers' poll) | Ulrich Kaiser [98] (panel of 13 experts) | Joseph McCauley [99] |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Ulrich Kaiser [101] (panel of 18 experts) | Joseph McCauley; [102] Seagram's (panel of experts) [103] | Bud Collins [104] ( The Boston Globe ) | Rino Tommasi [105] ( La Gazzetta dello Sport ) | The Times [106] |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Bud Collins [104] | Rino Tommasi; [105] Joseph McCauley [107] | Frank Rostron [108] ( Daily Express ) |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Joseph McCauley [109] | Bud Collins [104] | Rino Tommasi [105] | Rex Bellamy [110] | Judith Elian [111] (L'Equipe) | Mike Gibson [111] | Tennis magazine [112] (Germany) |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Joseph McCauley [113] | Bud Collins [104] | Rino Tommasi [105] | L'Èquipe | Rex Bellamy (The Times) [114] | Frank Rostron [115] | Björn Hellberg (Tennis Tidning) |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Bud Collins [104] | Rino Tommasi [105] | Rex Bellamy [116] | Frank Rostron [117] | John Barrett ( Financial Times ) | Neil Amdur [118] (World Tennis) |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Bud Collins [104] | Rino Tommasi [105] | Rex Bellamy [119] [lower-alpha 2] | John Barrett | Neil Amdur | Poll of 17 international sportswriters [121] |
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Lance Tingay [100] | Bud Collins [104] | Rino Tommasi [105] | John Barrett | World Tennis [122] | Judith Elian [123] | Rex Bellamy [124] | Tennis magazine (U.S.) [125] |
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John Donald Budge was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the Grand Slam, and to win all four Grand Slam events consecutively overall. Budge was the second man to complete the career Grand Slam after Fred Perry, and remains the youngest to achieve the feat. He won ten majors, of which six were Grand Slam events and four Pro Slams, the latter achieved on three different surfaces. Budge is considered to have one of the best backhands in the history of tennis, with most observers rating it better than that of later player Ken Rosewall.
Frederick John Perry was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship, in 1936, and the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title, until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open.
Roy Stanley Emerson is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam titles. All of his singles Grand Slam victories and 14 of his Grand Slam doubles victories were achieved before the open era began in 1968. He is the only male player to have completed a career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles, and the first of four male players to complete a double career Grand Slam in singles. His 28 major titles are the all-time record for a male player. He was ranked world No. 1 amateur in 1961 by Ned Potter, 1964 by Potter, Lance Tingay and an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 14 experts and 1965 by Tingay, Joseph McCauley, Sport za Rubezhom and an Ulrich Kaiser panel of 16 experts.
Jean René Lacoste was a French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because of how he dealt with his opponents; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929, and eventually founded the brand and its logo in 1933.
Francis "Frank" Arthur Sedgman is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. Over the course of a three-decade career, Sedgman won five Grand Slam singles tournaments as an amateur as well as 22 Grand Slam doubles tournaments. He is one of only five tennis players all-time to win multiple career Grand Slams in two disciplines, alongside Margaret Court, Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams. In 1951, he and Ken McGregor won the Grand Slam in men's doubles. Sedgman turned professional in 1953, and won the Wembley World Professional Indoor singles title in 1953 and 1958. He also won the Sydney Masters tournament in 1958, and the Melbourne Professional singles title in 1959. He won the Grand Prix de Europe Professional Tour in 1959.
John Albert Kramer was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, and a pioneer promoter who helped drive the sport towards professionalism at the elite level. Kramer also ushered in the serve-and-volley era in tennis, a playing style with which he won three Grand Slam tournaments. He also led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team to victory in the 1946 and 1947 Davis Cup finals.
Henry Ellsworth Vines Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 in 1932 as an amateur, and in 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1937 as a professional. He won three Grand Slam titles, the U.S. National Championships in 1931 and 1932 and the Wimbledon Championships in 1932. Vines also was able to win Pro Slam titles on three different surfaces. He later became a professional golfer and reached the semifinals of the PGA Championship in 1951.
Henri Jean Cochet was a French tennis player. He was a world No. 1 ranked player, and a member of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
John Herbert Crawford, was an Australian tennis player during the 1930s. He was the World No. 1 amateur for 1933, during which year he won the Australian Open, the French Open, and Wimbledon, and was runner-up at the U.S. Open in five sets, thus missing the Grand Slam by one set that year. He also won the Australian Open in 1931, 1932, and 1935. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979.
Marion Anthony Trabert was an American amateur world No. 1 tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker.
Ashley John Cooper AO was an Australian tennis player who played between 1953 and 1968. He was ranked as the world's No. 1 amateur player during the years of 1957 and 1958. Cooper won four singles and four doubles titles at Grand Slam tournaments. He won three of the four Grand Slam events in 1958. He turned professional in 1959. Cooper won the Slazenger Professional Championships tournament in 1959. He won the Grand Prix de Europe professional tour of Europe in 1960. Cooper won the European Cup professional tour of Europe in 1962. He retired from tennis play at the end of 1962 due to injury.
Cilly Aussem was a German tennis player.
Arthur David "Art" or "Tappy" Larsen was a U.S. tennis player in the 1940s and 1950s.
Nancye Wynne Bolton was a tennis player from Australia. She won the women's singles title six times at the Australian Championships, third only to Margaret Court's and Serena Williams' 11 and 7 titles respectively. Bolton won 20 titles at the Australian Championships, second only to Court's 23 titles.
World number 1 ranked male tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the male tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources. The annual source rankings from which the No. 1 players are drawn are cited for each player's name, with a summary of the most important tennis events of each year also included. If world rankings are not available, recent rankings by tennis writers for historical years are accessed, with the dates of the recent rankings identified. In the period 1948–1953, when contemporary professional world rankings were not created, the U.S. professional rankings are cited.
Richard "Dick" Norris Williams II, generally known as R. Norris Williams, was an American tennis player and passenger aboard RMS Titanic. He survived the sinking of the Titanic. He won the U.S. National Tennis Championships in men's singles in 1914 and 1916. He was ranked the U.S. No. 1 player for 1916 by the USLTA, and world No. 2 for 1914.
Robert Larimore Riggs was an American tennis champion who was the world No. 1 amateur in 1939 and world No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December 26, 1941.
World number 1 ranked female tennis players is a year-by-year listing of the female tennis players who were ranked as world No. 1 by various contemporary and modern sources.
Brian Ivan Cobb Norton, nicknamed "Babe", was a South African tennis player. He was born in Cape Colony and died in Santa Clara, California. At Wimbledon 1921, Norton beat Frank Hunter and Manuel Alonso Areizaga, before having two championship points in the Challenge Round against Bill Tilden but losing in five sets. Norton is one of only two men to hold championship point in a Grand Slam men's singles final and yet not win a title (the other is Guillermo Coria at the 2004 French Open. Norton won the 1923 U.S. National Championships doubles, alongside Tilden. In the singles that year, Norton beat R. Norris Williams in a five-set quarterfinal, then lost to Tilden in the semifinals.
This article presents top ten lists of male singles tennis players, as ranked by various official and non-official ranking authorities throughout the history of the sport. Rankings of U.S.-only professionals pre-Open Era, and U.S.-only amateurs during World War II are also included.