The 6 WTA legends to spend a full calendar year as world No 1
Getting to world No 1 is arguably the greatest achievement in tennis and something that countless young players will hope to achieve at some stage during their careers.
Only 29 women have ever been able to reign as world No 1 on the WTA Tour, and some have well and truly owned their time at the top of the rankings.
Some of the most dominant No 1 players in history, we look at the six women who have spent a full calendar year as the best player in the world.
Chris Evert – 1977, 1981
An all-time great with 18 Grand Slam singles titles to her name, Chris Evert was the first ever WTA world No 1, holding the top spot when the rankings were launched in November 1975.
Except for two weeks in 1976 when she was retrospectively knocked off the top spot by Evonne Goolagong, Evert reigned as world No 1 until July 1978, encompassing the whole of 1977.
The next decade saw her embark on an incredible rivalry with Martina Navratilova to hold the top ranking, with the two dominating the late 1970s and early 1980s.
One of Evert’s most successful periods in that battle saw her hold the No 1 ranking throughout 1981, claiming the top spot from November 1980 to May 1982.
In total, Evert spent 260 weeks as No 1 during her career.
Read More: The 15 countries that have produced WTA world No 1 singles players
Martina Navratilova – 1983, 1984, 1986
Matching Evert’s 18 Grand Slam titles, Navratilova is another all-time great, famously winning six Wimbledon titles in a row during the 1980s – and holding the No 1 ranking for 332 weeks.
A staggering 275 of those weeks came during the 1980s, and she reigned for a full calendar year on three separate occasions.
The first two of those years came consecutively during the most dominant period of her career, with a 156-week spell from June 1982 to June 1985 seeing her spend the whole of 1983 and 1985 at the top.
After reclaiming the world No 1 spot from Evert at the end of 1985, she reigned until her final week at the top in August 1987, a 90-week spell that encompassed all of 1986.
Steffi Graf – 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996
With 377 weeks as the world No 1 player, no other woman in history can claim to have spent as long at the top as Graf, a 22-time major winner.
It was the German who dislodged Navratilova from the top spot in August 1987 and she did not lose that ranking until March 1991, a joint record of 186 consecutive weeks holding the No 1 ranking.
That saw he spend the entirety of 1988 – when she won the Golden Calendar Slam – 1989, and 1990 as No 1, though she did not stop there.
Another reign at world No 1 came from June 1993 to February 1995, encompassing 1994, while she won three major titles in 1996, allowing her to again spend the whole calendar year as the best player in the world.
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Monica Seles – 1992
One of the sport’s greatest competitors and a nine-time Grand Slam champion, Monica Seles is one of the most revered players in tennis history.
She was undoubtedly the best player in the world when she was infamously stabbed on court in April 1993 – what she could have potentially achieved had that not happened is the biggest ‘what if?’ in the sport.
However, she won eight Grand Slam titles before that, and wrestled control of her rivalry with Graf.
After ending 1991 as the year-end world No 1, Seles won three of the four majors in 1992 and reached the Wimbledon final, enabling her to stay at the top for all of that year.
Serena Williams – 2014, 2015
A 23-time Grand Slam champion who spent 319 weeks as world No 1 across her career, Williams may just be the greatest female player of them all.
Williams first reached the No 1 ranking in 2002 but it wasn’t until a decade later she reached the astonishing peak of her career, dominating the early 2010s.
After reclaiming the top spot in February 2013, the American held onto that ranking until September 2016, matching Graf’s run of 186 straight weeks as No 1.
That staggering run saw her hold the top spot through 2014 and 2015, a period that saw her complete the second ‘Serena Slam’.
Ashleigh Barty – 2020, 2021
One of the most successful players in the post-Serena era, Barty’s career was short but incredibly sweet.
The Australian won French Open and Wimbledon titles before famously capturing her home major in 2022, and then retiring just a few weeks later.
Barty first got to No 1 in June 2019 and after ending that season as No 1, held onto the top spot throughout 2020, due to the COVID-19 rules put in place by the WTA Tour.
Her Wimbledon title in 2021 enabled her to spend the whole year as No 1 also, while she was still at the top spot when she retired in March 2022.
