5 most successful French Open Champions

Although clay-courts do not put the physical abilities of a player to the extent that hard and synthetic surfaces do, the mental strength of the athletes are tested most severely.To emerge victorious at the French Open, possession of an extensive range of strokes is far from sufficient. Only those players, who possess, along with the necessary ammunition a strong-willed disposition, can succeed at Roland Garros.Let us now take a look at five of the most successful women’s French Open champions in the Open Era.

#5 Monica Seles (3)

Monica Seles won three French Open titles in a row in the years 1990-92.

By the time Monica Seles had turned 19, she had already won seven Grand Slam titles and was well on course to becoming probably the most successful women’s tennis player of all time.

This precocious young talent’s first success at a Grand Slam event, came at the French Open in 1990, when as a 16-year-old, she stunned then World Number One Steffi Graf in the final to etch her name in the annals of history. In March 1991, Seles dislodged Graf from the summit of the World Rankings, signalling a power shift in women’s tennis.

Victory eluded her only on the lawns of Wimbledon, where she had to settle for the runner-up position in 1992. All the other Grand Slam events, however, became her bastions.

The French Open, in particular, she held with a vice-like grip. She won the crown thrice in a row, from 1990-92. Although Arantxa Sanchez Vicario too has three French Open titles against her name, Seles, by dint of having won the crown in consecutive years, pips the former.

#4 Margaret Court (3)

Margaret Court won a jaw-dropping 62 Grand Slam titles in her career.

Margaret Court was one of the few women’s tennis players who dominated tennis in both the Open Era and the years that preceded that epoch.

Court is the most successful women’s tennis player of all time. The Australian ace won a record 62 Grand Slam titles, including titles won in doubles and mixed doubles. In singles’ alone, Court won 24 Grand Slam titles, 11 of which came in the Open Era. Court won three French Open titles in the Open Era, the first of which came in 1969.

She successfully defended her crown in ’70 before winning the title for the last time in ’73. However, Court won the French Open twice before the Open Era as well.

#3 Justine Henin (4)

Justine Henin reigned supreme at the French Open in the first decade of the new millennium.

At a stage when the Williams’ sisters were conquering all that lay in their path and were establishing a hegemony in women’s tennis, only two Belgians stood in their way: One was Kim Clijsters and the other was, Justine Henin.

In stark contrast to the Williams’ sisters, who were unbelievably athletic and centred their games on powerful stroke-making, Henin was more subtle, opting to kill her opponents softly.

Henin, with one of the most beautiful single-handed backhands at a time when powerful double-fisted backhands were the rage, provided relief in more ways than one. Her ability to conjure near impossible angles with her backhand, which was her most potent weapon, left her opponents and the observers of the game flabbergasted.

At the French Open, she reigned supreme for the better of the 2000s. In 2003, she defeated Serena Williams in the semi-final of the French Open to set-up an all Belgian final with Clijsters. The final was a one-sided affair as Henin closed out the match in straight sets, dropping just four games in the course of winning her first Grand Slam title.

Owing to injuries, Henin was unable to defend her title in ’04, but, beginning in ’05, won the title a record three times, becoming the first to achieve the feat since Monica Seles.

Henin won seven Grand Slam titles in a career that was constantly dogged by injuries.

#2 Steffi Graf (6)

Steffi Graf won the first of her 22 Grand Slam titles at the French Open in 1987.

Until the arrival of Steffi Graf, 1980s women’s tennis was largely the tale of two titans: Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. While the former ruled virtually unchallenged at Wimbledon, the latter was the greatest clay-court player ever, reigning over French Open.

But, a young teenager from Germany not only challenged the status quo but also succeeded in scripting what is likely to remain the most glorious chapter in tennis history. Graf won a staggering 22 singles’ Grand Slam titles, the first of which came at a time when both Navratilova and Evert were ruling the roost.

Graf defeated Navratilova in the final of the 1987 French Open to mark the beginning of her illustrious journey in tennis. She subsequently went on to win five more French Open titles, four of them coming in the 1990s, against players significantly younger than she was.

#1 Chris Evert (7)

Chris Evert won her first French Open title as a 19-year-old in 1974.

The American former World Number one was near invulnerable on clay. Chris Evert’s affair with clay wasn’t confined to Roland Garros. She won 70 clay court titles in all, including all three US Open titles that were played on clay.

Her affair with French Open began in 1974, when as a 19-year-old, she defeated Olga Morozova of Soviet Union to win her first Grand Slam crown. She successfully defended her title in ’75. However, even as she asserted her dominance in the world of tennis in the ensuing years, her hold over the French Open crown loosened and it wasn’t before 1979 that she would renew her tryst with Roland Garros.

In the years 1979-86, Evert won five French Open titles, taking her overall tally at the event to seven, the highest in the women’s circuit.