The women’s triumvirate is significantly more difficult to unravel. Since Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal all played at the same time, we don’t have to wonder how each would have fared playing against similar competition. Their whole careers were spent playing against similar competition, and the result was a remarkable 20+ majors for each of them. They played in the most difficult era in men’s tennis history, and still managed to outperform every other player who ever lived. With the three men’s GOAT candidates coming from the same generation, it’s easier to parse the data and settle on a pecking order. We have no such luxury with the women’s triumvirate. How Martina Navratilova would have fared against the same players who Serena Williams had to contend with will remain a mystery until the end of time. Navratilova is 12 years older than Graf who is 12 years older than Williams, which means we’ll have to apply a degree-of-difficulty consideration to the comparisons. Like the men’s triumvirate, there are strong arguments to be made for all three of the women.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams has the most majors (23) and the most finals appearances (33) of any women’s tennis player in the Open Era. Among her 23 major victories were wins over 10 different women who won at least one major and seven women who won multiple majors. She faced 18 different opponents in her 33 major appearances. Not only does S. Williams own the Open Era record for major wins and appearances, but she did it against the most diverse collection of talent the women’s game has ever seen.
The only data points that keep S. Williams from being the unequivocal GOAT are inconsistency and inactivity. Her career spanned from 1998-2022, and over that time she missed 17 major tournaments and lost before the quarterfinals 27 times. In contrast, Graf only missed 11 major tournaments and lost before the quarterfinals just 12 times. The relative lack of activity from Williams not only impacted her quest to put distance between herself and Graf, but it also affected her year-end rankings. Graf finished in the top-3 of the year-end rankings for 11 consecutive years. S. Williams’s longest stretch was five years, and her next longest after that was just two. Navratilova, for her part, did it for a remarkable 14 consecutive years.
Steffi Graf
At face value, Graf’s career accomplishments are every bit as strong as S. Williams’s. While Williams barely eclipsed Graf in majors (23 – 22) and major appearances (33 – 31), Graf was consistently more dominant. There was a stretch from 1987-1990 when Graf made 13 consecutive major finals. Williams never made more than four in a row. Graf is the only player since 1970 (man or woman) to win a Grand Slam (winning all four majors in the same year), and the only player since 1970 (man or woman) to win five consecutive majors. She’s also the only player in history to win the Golden Slam (winning all four majors and an Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year) and a non-calendar year Super Slam (winning all four majors, an Olympic gold medal, and the WTA Finals consecutively). She’s the only player (man or woman) since 1970 to win at least three majors in five different years, and the only player ever to win a combination of four majors and year-end championships in the same year on five different occasions.
There is no question that Graf was the greatest player in the world for a significant stretch of her career. What is in question is the caliber of Graf’s competition. Of Graf’s 22 major victories, she defeated seven different women who won at least one major and five who won multiple majors. She faced just 11 different opponents in her 31 major final appearances. In contrast to S. Williams, Graf was seeing and defeating the same group of players. She faced Aranxta Sanchez Vicario seven times in major finals, Martina Navratilova six times, Monica Seles five times, and Gabriela Sabatini three times. It’s important to note that Navratilova was 12 years older than Graf and well past her prime, Seles was never the same after the stabbing attack in ‘93, and Vicario and Sabatini were a combined 5-10 in major tournament finals. This is all to say that Graf’s competition was nowhere near the level that Williams faced over her career. A quick look at S. Williams and Graf’s ages compared to their opponents in major finals drives this point home. Of S. Williams’s 33 opponents in major finals, 28 of them were in their 20s, when athletes are typically in their prime. On the other hand, only 14 of Graf’s 31 major finals opponents were in their 20s. Graf was, on average, a year younger than her average opponent in major finals while S. Williams was almost four years older than her average opponent. This means that S. Williams was not only playing players in their primes, she was doing so without the advantage of youth.
Additionally, there is an argument to be made that while she certainly had the best career of her generation, Graf may not have been the best player of her generation. After her magnificent run from 1987-1990, Graf won just two of the next 12 major tournaments, signaling a significant drop-off in performance. Graf was floundering, in large part, because Monica Seles was dominating. Of those same 12 tournaments that saw Graf win just two, Seles won eight and reached the final of a ninth. The baton had seemingly been passed to Seles, and then she was horrifically stabbed at the ‘93 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany. Seles would miss the next 10 major events, and would never regain her dominant form. In Seles’s absence, Graf would go on to win 10 of her next 13 major tournament appearances, cementing her spot as a bona fide GOAT contender. Graf did what she was supposed to do, which is to defeat the competition in front of her. However, it’s hard to envision her achieving the same career major totals with a healthy Seles to contend with.
Martina Navratilova
The argument for Navratilova as the GOAT is all about volume and an elite peak run, which are plenty of ammunition to give her the crown. She reached the finals of 250 tournaments. To put that number in perspective, S. Williams and Graf combined to reach 238 finals. Navratilova also won an astounding 177 titles. S. Williams and Graf combined to win 181. Navratilova played 701 more career matches than S. Williams, and still finished with a higher career winning percentage (86.3 – 83.2). Navratilova finished in the top-5 of the year-end rankings in 19 consecutive seasons. Nobody has come close to duplicating that feat, and nobody likely ever will. She finished as the year-end #1 player for five consecutive seasons which is the longest streak in history. Her nine Wimbledon titles and eight WTA Finals titles (world championship) are, by far, the most in the Open Era. Nobody won more, and nobody did it for longer than Martina Navratilova.
Navratilova’s case as the GOAT doesn’t solely stand on volume. The run that she had from Wimbledon ’83 to the ’87 U.S. Open is arguably the most dominant stretch anyone has ever had in the sport of tennis. Over those five years, Navratilova entered 22 majors/world championships and reached the finals in 21 of them. Her record in majors/world championships from 1983-1987 was 133-7 (95%), which means for those five years she was essentially Rafael Nadal on clay, but on all surfaces. Graf’s 13 consecutive major finals appearances would be hailed as the greatest stretch in women’s tennis history, if not for Navratilova’s 14 consecutive major finals appearances and 18 consecutive majors/world championships finals appearances.
However, much like Graf, the competition that Navratilova faced wasn’t in the same stratosphere as S. Williams’s. Navratilova appeared in 32 major finals, and she faced off against Chris Evert in 14 of them. This speaks volumes to the competition on the tour at the time. Of her 32 major finals appearances, Navratilova saw only 11 different opponents. Of her 18 major tournament titles, she only defeated three different women who won at least one career major. Similar to the dynamic that Graf had with Seles, Navratilova was also not far and away the best player of her era. Evert’s resume isn’t far off Navratilova’s. They are less than two years apart in age so their careers coincided. They each won 18 majors and Evert appeared in more major finals (34-32). In fact, Evert has the record for most finals appearances. Evert finished in the top-3 of the year-end rankings for 17 consecutive years which is a mark that most likely will never be broken. Navratilova and Evert faced each other 80 times, with Navratilova holding a slim 43 – 37 margin. The argument here isn’t that Evert had the better career, it’s merely to show that as great as Navratilova was, there was someone in her own era who was nearly as good. Given how weak that particular era was in terms of competition, that’s a tough blemish to overcome in the GOAT conversation.
The Verdict
There are plenty of arguments to be made for Steffi Graf or Martina Navratilova as the greatest women’s tennis player of all-time. However, each had a rival that was nearly as good in a comparatively weak era. For Graf, it was Monica Seles. For Navratilova, it was Chris Evert. There is nobody even close to Serena Williams from her generation. In the 25 tennis seasons from 1998-2022, S. Williams won as many majors as the next four most successful women combined [Venus Williams (7), Justin Henin (7), Maria Sharapova (5), and Kim Clijsters (4)]. She played in the most talent-rich era the women’s game has ever seen, and she still managed to win more major tournaments than Graf and Navratilova. S. Williams gets the nod on volume and degree of difficulty.