The 10 greatest female clay-courters of the Open Era – ranked!
Clay-court tennis is a difficult art to master, but some greats of the sport have found themselves at home on the dirt.
Here, looking at a combination of factors including French Open success, overall titles won, win percentage, and era, we rank the ten greatest female clay-courters of the Open Era.
10) Maria Sharapova
Sharapova once described herself as a “cow on ice” on clay, which made her later success on the surface even more notable.
The Russian turned clay into her most successful terrain, winning the French Open in 2012 and 2014—also reaching the 2013 final—while winning three titles in both Rome and Stuttgart.
Sharapova won 11 WTA titles on clay overall, and her win rate of 82.38% ranks her seventh among women with more than 100 wins on the surface since WTA records began.
9) Martina Navratilova
Navratilova is best remembered for her dominance on grass, though she was undoubtedly an adept clay-courter also, with her 18 titles on the surface ranking her seventh in the Open Era.
The Czech-born American’s success is probably highlighted by her 1982 and 1984 Roland Garros titles, though she reached a further four finals at the event.
Navratilova won 80.3% of her matches on the dirt, the ninth-best win rate of the Open Era among women with at least 100 wins.
8) Serena Williams
Clay was not Williams’ strongest surface, but her success on it is still more than enough to place her among the Open Era’s leading players.
The American won 82.49% of her matches on clay, recording 179 match wins in total, and won 13 WTA titles on the surface – ranking her joint-ninth in the Open Era.
Williams was a three-time French Open champion across her career, but was also the winner of an impressive four Italian Open titles and two titles in Madrid.
7) Iga Swiatek
Swiatek could well surge up this ranking in the years to come, though the Pole has already cemented her place as the leading dirtballer of her generation – and one of the best of all time.
Four of her five Grand Slam titles have come at Roland Garros, including three straight titles from 2022-24, while she has already claimed three Italian Open titles, and a Madrid Open title on the surface.
Swiatek has claimed 10 clay titles, and her win rate of 88.39% ranks her third among women with 100+ wins, and fourth across the Open Era overall.
6) Margaret Court
Court’s success was spread across both the amateur and professional ages, though it is hard to argue against her clay-court pedigree in the Open Era.
The Australian lifted the French Open title in 1969, 1970, and 1973 and won 24 titles on the surface, an Open Era tally topped by only two women.
Though she comparatively played fewer matches on clay during the WTA era compared to some on this list, she achieved a staggering win rate of 90.8%.
5) Monica Seles
Who knows what Seles could have gone on to achieve had her career not been derailed by her shocking stabbing in 1993, though there can be no doubt that clay was one of her greatest terrains.
Seles is one of just three women to win three consecutive French Open titles, triumphing from 199092, while she would later finish as the event runner-up in 1998.
Her 85.02% win percentage places her fourth in the Open Era, while she was the winner of 14 titles overall on the dirt.
WTA Tour News
The 7 women with the highest WTA clay-court win percentage: Chris Evert 94.55%, Serena Williams 6th
The 10 women with the most clay court titles: Chris Evert with 70, Serena Williams joint-ninth
4) Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
Only one woman has won more clay-court matches in the WTA era than Sanchez Vicario, whose 342 victories on the surface cement her place as an icon of the surface.
The Spaniard was briefly the youngest-ever French Open champion after her 1989 triumph, and would win the title again in 1994 and 1998 – alongside three further runner-up finishes.
Sanchez Vicario’s haul of 19 titles on dirt is a record only beaten by four women in the Open Era, and she won titles in Barcelona and Berlin on the surface.
3) Justine Henin
Perhaps the most successful clay-courter of the 21st century, Henin’s dominance on the dirt at the very peak of her powers was almost unparalleled.
The Belgian won her first Roland Garros title in 2003 and then won three straight titles from 2005-07, not dropping a set to claim her final two crowns before her sudden retirement in 2008.
Henin won 13 titles overall on clay, including three German Open titles, and held a win rate of 84.89% on the surface.
2) Steffi Graf
Graf found huge success on grass and hard courts, though clay proved to be one of her most dominant and successful surfaces.
The German won 32 titles on the dirt, the second-most of any woman in the Open Era, while holding a staggering win percentage of 88.57% on the surface.
Six of Graf’s clay titles came at the French Open, triumphing in 1987-88, 1993, 1995-96, and 1999, while she reached a further three finals at Roland Garros.
Graf also won a staggering nine German Open titles across her career, cementing her place as one of the best dirtballers in WTA history.
1) Chris Evert
With an array of clay-court records to her name, Evert is undoubtedly the greatest female clay-courter of the Open Era.
The American won seven titles at Roland Garros, the most of any woman in the professional era, though her remarkable statistics continue from that.
Evert won an astonishing 70 titles on the dirt – well ahead of Graf in second place – and won a staggering 94.55% of her matches on clay, with her 382 wins the most of any woman on clay.
Having once won 125 straight matches on the dirt, the tennis icon’s dominance on the dirt was like no one else’s.
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