Tennis: Greatest Players A-Z: Volume E
Sorry, Stefan Edberg, you were born with the wrong surname. For the letter E, there is no debate—the top honor belongs to Christine Marie Evert.
The original American sweetheart, Evert won 18 Grand Slam single titles including a record seven at Roland Garros and a record six at Flushing Meadows—and finished No. 1 in the world seven times, including five straight years from 1974-78.
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A strong case can be made for Evert as the greatest female player ever, especially when you factor in her 157 singles titles, 29 doubles titles (three Slams), that she never lost in the first or second round of a Grand Slam singles event, and that her all-time winning percentage of .900 (1,309-146) is the best of any player—regardless of gender—all time.
Evert's ascension is the stuff of legend—from her win over then-No. 1 Margaret Court at the age of 15 to her reaching the US Open semifinals at age 16, losing to Billie Jean King.
In 1973, she not only won Wimbledon and the French Open, but also strung together a 55-match winning streak and was briefly engaged to America's top men's player—Jimmy Conors—although that relationship would end soon after.
As remarkable as her game was overall, Evert was even more talented on clay courts. In August of 1973, she started a streak of 125 straight matches won on the surface, losing only seven total sets before losing in 1979. After that loss, she won 72 straight matches on the surface, meaning that in an eight-year span, she compiled a 197-1 record on clay.
In Grand Slam play, she was 72-6 at the French Open, 94-15 at Wimbledon, 101-13 at the US Open and 30-4 at the Australian Open.
Against the greatest players of her career, she had a losing record against just three of them: Martina Navratilova (37-43), Steffi Graf (6-8—with Graf winning the final eight matches as she took over the dominant spot in the game) and Tracy Austin (8-9).
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