Women's Tennis : Most weeks as WTA World Number 1

The Women's Tennis Association or the WTA first introduced the WTA rankings in 1975 two years after the ATP published the first set of rankings for the Men's game. The rankings are cumulative in nature a rollover at the end of the season. In Singles, up to 16 tournaments can be considered for the basis of an award of ranking points. The magnitude of ranking points awarded varies in structure. The Grand Slams get the maximum points, followed by the Premier Mandatory Tournaments (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Beijing), Premier 5 events (Doha, Rome, Montreal, Cincinnati, Wuhan) and the remaining 12 Premier tournaments in descending order. Prior to 2016, ranking points were also awarded for wins scored in the Olympic Games. However, it has been disbanded recently.

25 women belonging to 13 different countries have been ranked World Number 1. Martina Hingis was the youngest to be ranked World Number 1 for the first time and Angelique Kerber is the oldest first-time Number 1 of all-time.

We take a look back at 5 women who occupied the summit of the rankings for the most number of weeks:

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#5 Martina Hingis

Martina Hingis - The French Open was the only Grand Slam that she never won.

Swiss tennis legend Martina Hingis was a tennis prodigy who broke many youngest ever tennis records in the late 1990s. At Wimbledon 1996, she won the Doubles title and became the youngest ever Wimbledon Champion across all formats of tennis. She is one of few women to have been ranked World number 1 in both Singles and Doubles at the same time. She became the youngest player to be ranked World number 1 by the WTA. She achieved this feat in March 31st 1997 at the age of just 16. Martina Hingis had 5 stints at the top of the WTA rankings in her career. She spent a total of 209 weeks at the top of the rankings including 80 consecutive weeks.

#4 Chris Evert

Chris Evert at the 2018 BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore

American Chris Evert was the first woman to be ranked as number 1 when the WTA rankings first came out on November 3rd 1975. Chris Evert holds the record for the most Grand Slam final appearances with 31 appearances. In a glittering career, she won 18 Grand Slam singles titles including winning at least one in 13 consecutive years - an all-time record. Her singles winning percentage of 89.97% is the highest among both men and women.

She is widely considered to be the most dominant clay court player w of all time among women with 7 French Open crowns and a clay-court win percentage of 94.55%. Evert won an impressive 157 Singles titles. Post-retirement she has had two stints as President of the WTA and is presently serving as a tennis analyst for ESPN.

Evert had a joint-record of 9 stints at the top of the WTA rankings ( a record she shares with Martina Navratilova). In all, Evert spent 260 weeks as the top-ranked player including on 113 consecutive weeks between May 10th 1976 to July 9th 1978.

#3 Serena Williams

Serena Williams - the only active player in the list

The only active player on the list is American Serena Williams. Serena rose to prominence as a teenager in the late 1990s and is the only woman in tennis history to win Grand Slam singles titles in 3 different decades (the 1990's 2000's and 2010's). Her tally of 23 Grand Slam titles till date is second to none in the Open Era.

The only woman with over 80 million USD in prize money earnings, Serena has inspired women all over the world and continues to defy age and time as she looks to break Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles. Bestowed recently with 'The WTA Comeback Player of the Year in 2018 Award', Serena Williams has been the World Number 1 on 7 different occasions the first of which came way back in July 2002.

Her 6th stint as World Number 1 between February 18th 2013 to September 11th 2016 lasted 186 weeks - an all-time record she shares with Steffi Graf.

In all, Serena has been World Number 1 for 319 weeks till date.

#2 Martina Navratilova

Martina Navratilova at the Wimbledon Royal Box

Widely considered by pundits and fans alike to be the 'Most complete' player of all-time, Czech-American Martina Navratilova achieved unprecedented success across all three formats of the game. In a career-spanning 31 years, Navratilova captured 18 Grand Slam singles titles, an all-time record of 31 doubles titles and 10 mixed doubles titles. Her combined tally across all three formats is second to none in tennis history.

She is the only player to have been ranked World Number 1 in singles and doubles for over 4 years each. Navratilova first rose to the summit of the WTA rankings in July 1978. Her last stint at the top came in August 1987. In all, Navratilova had 9 spells at the top of the rankings - a record she shares with Chris Evert. Navratilova was the Number 1 ranked player for 332 weeks including 156 consecutive weeks (almost 3 years) between 1982 and 1985.

#1 Steffi Graf

Steffi Graf

One of the tennis' greatest champions Steffi Graf is the only tennis player to win the Golden Slam - All 4 Grand Slams and the Olympics Gold in the same year. A prodigious talent, Graf took the tennis world by storm in the late 1980s with her aggressive blend of tennis and charm on and off the court. With 22 Grand Slam titles, she held the Open Era record for many years until Serena Williams won her 23rd at the 2017 Australian Open.

Graf held the WTA top ranking slot for a joint record of 186 consecutive weeks ( a record she shares with Serena Williams). She is the only player apart from Roger Federer to have been holding the Number 1 ranking for over 100 weeks in her first spell at the summit itself. In all Steffi had 7 spells at the top. The total number of weeks spent by Graf at the top is 377 - the highest all-time among both men and women.