From King to Evert to Williams, A Look At The U.S. Women Who Have Ruled The U.S. Open

Unlike the world of men’s tennis, the women’s side doesn’t have a big three that rule over every tournament. Just when you think there’s a new woman taking the reigns (Simona Haelp, Karolina Pliskova, Angelique Kerber) someone else makes their presence known and then it’s her turn to temporarily take the spotlight (Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty, Kiki Bertens.) 

When it comes to the next big thing in U.S. Women, it’s been the same thing, with the successors to the Williams throne consistently raising hopes and then failing to follow through. When Sloane Stephens won the U.S. Open in 2017 over fellow American Madison Keys, it felt like we were on the verge of another era of U.S. women ruling in Queens, but neither made the final the next year, and Stephens is currently ranked 10^th while Keys is 18^th. (15 year-old sensation Coco Gauff is 140^th BTW.) While we wait to see whether any of these American women will put together a run at the U.S. Open, let’s look back at the most successful U.S. women at the U.S. Open, starting with the woman who was such a force, they named the site of the whole tournament after her.

Billie Jean King

• U.S. Open Women’s Singles Titles: 1967, 1971, 1972, 1974  
• U.S. Open Mixed Doubles Titles: 1967, 1971, 1973, 1976
• U.S. Open Women’s Doubles Titles: 1964, 1967, 1974, 1978, 1980

The grand dame of U.S. Women’s tennis, Billie Jean King dominated the game for almost a decade, winning 13 U.S. Open titles in various competitions. In the 25 Grand Slam tournaments she played in, she reached the Final in 16 of them, going 12-4 overall. Eve with her 4 U.S. Open singles titles, that wasn’t her strongest tournament, as she won the Wimbledon singles title 6 times. Sure, they named a stadium in Queens after Arthur Ashe, but they named the whole dang complex after the one and only Billie Jean King.

Chris Evert

• U.S. Open Women’s Singles Titles: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 1980, 1982

Right on the heels of Billie Jean King came Chris Evert, who went on to win a record 6 U.S. Open Women’s Singles titles over an 8 year span, while also holding the record for most consecutive titles with four. (Over the last three of those titles, she didn’t lose a set.) The year of 1976 was one of her most impressive, as she not only won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, but was one of only four tennis players ever (King, Ashe, and Serena Williams being the others) named as Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.

Martina Navratilova

• U.S. Open Women’s Singles Titles: 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987
• U.S. Open Mixed Doubles Titles: 1985, 1987, 2006
• U.S. Open Women’s Doubles Titles: 1977, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990

Yes, you read  that right, 16 U.S. Open titles. Martina Navratilova overlapped with Chris Evert in the mid-eighties to form one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history. While good friends off the court, their battles on the court were legendary, the height of which was the 1984 U.S. Open. Coming into the match, each had won 30 games against the other, and on that Super Saturday, Navratilova came back from a first set loss to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. While she won 4 U.S. Open titles (not to mention nineon the grass courts of Wimbledon), she was just as dominant, if not more, at doubles, and is the only player in history to hold the top spot in both singles (332 weeks) and doubles (237 weeks) for over 200 weeks. 

Serena Williams

• U.S. Open Women’s Singles Titles: 1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014  
• U.S. Open Women’s Doubles Titles: 1999, 2009
• U.S. Open Mixed Doubles Titles: 1998

Another U.S. Open, another chance for Serena to break Chris Evert’s record of 6 singles titles in Queens. In 1999, at age 18 and in just her second year on the tour, she entered the U.S. Open as the 7^th ranked player, and defeated in succession Grand Slam champions Kim Clijsters, Conchita Martinez, Monica Seles, and defending champion Lindsay Davenport, before knocking off number one seed Martina Hingis in the final to win her first U.S. Open title. (She and sister Venus also won the Women’s Doubles title that year.) Since then, she’s been in the U.S. Open final eight more times, and won five of them, with one of those losses, as well as one of those wins, coming against her sister. 

Will Serena be able to win title number seven this year? (She’s currently at +500 to win the tournament.) Play starts Monday, August 26^th, but you can place your bets on who you think will win today!