Women's Tennis All-Time Greatest

That was some post-match lovefest after Serena's first-round win at the US Open, huh?  They said that they planned on doing it whether she won or lost, which I'm sure is true, but it was still weird.  She has at least another match!  Are they gonna do the whole thing over again after every round she plays?  Because that would be silly.  But it would also be incredibly anticlimactic.  Although, come to think of it, all of her remaining matches will be anticlimactic after that farewell celebration.

Anyway, there was a card stunt at the end where the fans spelled out "We Love You Serena" and the ribbon board said "Greatest of All-time."  That's been the common refrain about Serena for a while now, since long before her impending retirement.

I have a problem with those sort of declarations, mainly because recency bias is definitely a thing.  People usually tend to have a more favorable opinion of the athlete/event/play that's still fresh in their mind.  I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but I do think the discussion needs to be deeper than just "who played most recently?"

The more I thought about Serena, though, the more I realized that calling her the "Greatest of All-time" wasn't the result of recency bias.  It was because it's true.  And not just because of what she's done on the court.  It's the entire story.  It's what she's meant to women's tennis as a whole.  The fact that the other women in the discussion agree says all that needs to be said, too.

So, if Serena's No. 1, where do those others rank?  Well, coming up with a top five was pretty easy.  I might get some disagreement about the order from 2-5, but I doubt I'll have an argument over who'll fill those places.  Spots 6-10 were much more difficult, however.  And that's where there's plenty of room to have a conversation about who should be on in place of somebody else.

Also, with all due respect to players like Helen Wills Moody, Maureen Connolly and Althea Gibson, I'm limiting this list to players who played during the Open Era, which began in 1968.  It's simply too hard to compare.  It's completely different eras.  Tennis wasn't a professional sport back then, so it really would be unfair to mix those pioneers with professionals.  So, you might want to call this the "Greatest Players of the Last 55 Years" instead of the "Greatest Players of All-time."

1. Serena Williams: She'll probably finish with 23 career Grand Slam singles titles, one short of the record.  But that doesn't include all of her Grand Slam doubles titles or her four Olympic gold medals.  Or the fact that she was simply the most dominant player of her era.  Serena changed the way women's tennis is played with her serve and her power.  Oh yeah, and she won the "Serena Slam" twice...a decade apart!

2. Martina Navratilova: There's really only one other player for whom you could make a legitimate argument that she's deserving of the top spot.  And that player would be Martina Navratilova.  Counting all of her singles and doubles titles, Martina's a 53-time! Grand Slam champion.  The first came in 1974.  The last?  In 2006!  She also won six straight Grand Slam titles at one point, and her 1984 season was one of the most dominant single seasons in history. 

3. Steffi Graf: Steffi was the greatest women's player I'd ever seen until Serena came along.  She won each Grand Slam at least four times and was No. 1 for a ridiculous 377 weeks (that's more than seven years!).  It could've been a lot more, too, if she hadn't retired at age 30 right after winning the French Open and making the Wimbledon final in 1999.  Then, of course, there's her "Golden Slam" in 1988, all four majors and Olympic gold.  Just ask Novak Djokovic how difficult that is to do!

4. Chris Evert: Part of what makes Chrissie and Martina so great is their rivalry.  If not for the other, they'd each have significantly more Grand Slam titles.  As it is, they both have 18.  My favorite Chris Evert stat is this one, though.  She played in 19 US Opens.  She made the semifinals or better in 17 of them at lost in the quarters at the other two.  In 56 career Grand Slam tournaments, she reached the semifinals 52 times (including 34 consecutive Majors played).  That, frankly, is absurd!

5. Billie Jean King: My admiration for Billie Jean King is well known.  She's the most influential female athlete of all-time, and I'd argue the most important since Jackie Robinson.  What sometimes gets lost in all that is that she was a damn good tennis player too!  Obviously, her legacy as an advocate is far more important, but let's not forget she won 12 Grand Slam singles titles.

6. Margaret Court: Even though she holds the all-time record (men's or women's) for Grand Slam titles, 11 of those 24 came at the Australian Open at a time when not everybody traveled to Australia for the tournament.  Court did win the calendar-year Grand Slam in 1970, though, and she won the calendar-year Grand Slam in mixed doubles twice.  So, while she might not be at the same level as the top five, Margaret Court definitely belongs near the top, especially since her career spans both the amateur and professional eras.

7. Monica Seles: Oh, what might have been!  When I was a kid, the rivalry between Monica Seles and Steffi Graf was one of the things that got me hooked on tennis.  She won nine Grand Slam titles, although pretty much everyone agrees it would've been more had she not missed almost two years in her prime because of that horrific on-court stabbing.  The fact that she came back from that to make the final of the 1995 US Open and win the 1996 Australian Open tells you all you need to know about how good a player Monica Seles was.

8. Venus Williams: When Venus had her breakthrough at the 1997 US Open, Richard Williams wouldn't shut up about how Serena was better.  Well, as it turns out, Dad was right.  Which isn't a knock on Serena's big sis at all.  Because Venus is a Hall of Fame player in her own right.  Five Wimbledon titles, plus two US Opens and the 2000 Olympic gold, as well as seven! Grand Slam final losses to her sister.  They've also teamed up to win 14 Grand Slam titles and three Olympic gold medals in doubles.

9. Justine Henin: For some reason, Justine Henin often gets overlooked in the all-time greatest discussion.  I'm not saying she belongs at the top.  But she deserves a lot more credit than she gets.  Henin was so great on clay, winning four French Opens in five years from 2003-07.  She retired while still No. 1 in 2008, only to come back in 2010 and reach the Australian Open final.

10. Kim Clijsters: Number 10 was tough.  I thought about Martina Hingis, Maria Sharapova, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Jennifer Capriati before settling on Kim Clijsters.  She was No. 1 in both singles and doubles simultaneously in 2003, but didn't win a Grand Slam title until the 2005 US Open.  Clijsters won her second US Open in 2009...as an unseeded wild card in her third tournament back after a two-year retirement.  She actually got back to No. 1 in 2012 before retiring a second time.