The 7 women with the most wins in their first 100 Grand Slam matches: Steffi Graf at No 3

Shahida Jacobs
Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams
From left to right: Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams

Iga Swiatek has become the latest player to reach a century of Grand Slam matches and she finds herself in elite company in terms of the women with the most wins during their first 100 matches in the Open Era.

The list features the who’s who of tennis with Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Venus and Serena Williams also part of the conversation.

Swiatek played her 100th match at the 2024 US Open, but she still has a long way to go in terms of the overall record for most matches played at Grand Slams.

Serena Williams leads that particular list as she has played 423 matches with Venus second on 356 while Martina Navratilova (355), Chris Evert (336) and Steffi Graf (310) complete the top five.

23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams also has the most match wins 367 with Navratilova notching up 306 wins and Evert 299.

Naturally, the trio are also on the seven-player list for most wins in their first 100 Grand Slam matches.

The 7 women with the most wins in their first 100 Grand Slam matches:

7. Iga Swiatek – 83 wins

Five-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek moved ahead of Maria Sharapova as they were both on 82 wins before the Pole defeated Liudmila Samsonova in the fourth round of the US Open.

The majority of Swiatek’s 83 wins at Grand Slams have come at the French Open as she is 35–2 at Roland Garros while she is now 20–4 at Flushing Meadows.

6. Venus Williams – 85

The great Venus Williams started her career with a Grand Slam final in her first season as a professional as she finished runner-up to Martina Hingis at the 1997 US Open.

Five years later Williams reached a century of major matches and during that period she won four Grand Slams trophies – two at Wimbledon and two at the US Open.

She went on to reach a double century and a triple century of Grand Slam matches.

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=4. Martina Hingis and Serena Williams – 86

Martina Hingis made her Grand Slam debut as a 14-year-old in 1995 and by the time she turned 17 in September 1997 she was already a three-time major champion as she won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open that year.

By 1998 she had reached a century of Grand Slam appearances, but she failed to reach 200 as she finished her career with a W-L record of 153–32.

Serena Williams played her first-ever major match at the 1998 Australian Open and she retired with 423 matches under her belt at the majors.

By the end of 1999 she was a Grand Slam winner as she won the US Open and in 2002 she won three majors in the year with the Australian Open the only one missing from the collection as she missed the tournament.

Williams would go on to become the first player to play in 400 Grand Slam matches with 108 of those coming at the US Open.

3. Steffi Graf – 87

22-time major champion Steffi Graf reached 13 consecutive Grand Slam finals from the 1987 French Open until 1990 French Open and unsurprisingly she was quick to notch up 100 appearances, losing only 13 of them.

Graf finished her career with a triple century of Grand Slam appearances (310) and she enjoyed an 89.7% winning record (278–32), behind only Margaret Court, who played only 107 matches in the Open Era.

2. Chris Evert – 90

The legendary Chris Evert has an 89.0 winning record at Grand Slams, having won 299 of her 336 matches.

In case you didn’t know just how great Evert was, let us remind you. She made her Grand Slam debut in 1971 and reached the semi-final or better of every major she played in until the 1983 French Open for a run of 34 consecutive majors.

By 1977 Evert had already notched up 100 matches and she lost only 10 times.

1. Monica Seles – 93

Monica Seles looked set to break a lot of women’s tennis records during the first few years, but sadly the stabbing incident in 1993 curtailed her career and she ended up playing 211 matches, winning 180.

The Yugoslav-born great won eight Grand Slam titles before that incident as she tallied more than 80 major matches. After returning in 1995, she finished runner-up at the US Open and then won the 1996 Australian Open.

Incredibly, she lost only seven matches during her first 100 Grand Slam encounters!