Why they rank here
Serena Williams won her first major at the 1999 US Open at age 17 and her 23rd — the Open Era record for any player, man or woman — at the 2017 Australian Open while roughly eight weeks pregnant. Between those bookends lies the most sustained excellence in women's sports history: 23 Slam finals won from 33 contested, 319 weeks at No.1 including a 186-week consecutive run that tied Steffi Graf's record, four Olympic gold medals, and two separate 'Serena Slams' (holding all four majors at once) completed eleven years apart, in 2002-03 and 2014-15. She won majors as a teenager and in her mid-thirties, beat No.1-ranked opponents across three different decades, and returned from a 2011 pulmonary embolism to compile arguably her best stretch, going 3.5 seasons from 2012 with a match record above 90 percent. Her serve is widely considered the greatest shot in the history of women's tennis. On dominance relative to field, she has a case for the top spot on any list.
Career profile
Each bar shows how this athlete compares with the strongest in our all-time list for that metric.
Head-to-head
Compare career numbers side by side.