This post contains famous 50 to 1 listing of professional female tennis players in the world included player profiles and mini bio. We brings together the most successful famous female tennis players and female tennis stars of past, present and future. Women Tennis has always been the story of rivalry between sheer power and delicacy in accurate strokes. In the history of Tennis, there has been so many famous female Tennis stars who have left their mark over the years.
Top 50 Famous Women Tennis Players in the World
50. Alize Cornet – Nationality: French
Career: Cornet is an 18 year old player out of Nice, France. She has one WTA title, and achieved a career high ranking of #17 earlier this summer. She’s only been a pro for about three years, and should be around for many years to come.
49. Brie Whitehead – Nationality: American
Career: Whitehead is the subject of some controversy, as she’s probably not really good enough to be pro, but her family is a well known tennis family and has a great deal of money, allowing Brie to travel around the world and hit up different events for which she qualifies. Her career record is just 2-29.
48. Tracy Austin (USA) – Nationality: American
Career: Austin was a top player in the 70’s, twice winning the US Open. She’s now one of the most recognizable tennis commentators in the world, frequently appearing on NBC and USA tennis coverage.
47. Bethanie Mattek – Nationality: American
Career: Mattek sometimes isn’t the fittest of players, but she still manages to qualify for our list pretty easily. Mattek probably attracts as much attention for her fashion sense as she does for her game, but she’s still a pretty solid player, with a career singles record of 175–135. She’s also a good doubles player, and has won four WTA doubles titles.
46. Anna Chakvetadze – Nationality: Russian
Career: Ever since Kournikova burst onto the scene it seems like there’s been a never ending stream of hot Russian tennis players, and you’ll see quite a few of them on this list. Chakvetadze is the first. She’s been ranked as high as #5 in the world, and holds a current ranking of 13th. She’s not won a grand slam as of yet, but she’s gone deep into all four, reaching the semi-finals of the US Open lin 2007, as well as the quarter-finals of the Australian and French Open. She advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon earlier this year.
45. Karolina Sprem – Nationality: Croatian
Career: Sprem has won seven ITF tournaments, but she has struggled in recent years, dealing with injuries and coaching issues. Her best grand slam finish was her quarter-final at Wimbledon in 2004.
44. Gussie Moran – Nationality: American
Career: Gussie Moran is a pick looking towards the hotness of years past. She was the first female player to don a short skirt, and it’s thanks to her legacy that we get to watch female players today wearing next to nothing. So heres a salute to Gussie Moran for her groundbreaking fashion statements all the way back in the 1940’s.
43. Yung Jan Chan – Nationality: Chinese
Career: Yung Jan Chan is a relatively mediocre singles player, making her living more as a doubles specialist. She’s achieved a world rank of sixth in doubles, but has only gotten up to 50 in singles.
42. Meghann Shaughnessy – Nationality: American
Career: Shaughnessy has been a pro since 1996. She’s a strong all-around player, achieving rankings of 11th in singles, and fourth in doubles at various times in her career. She has one of the strongest serves in the world for a female. Niece of Boston sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy.
41. Mary Pierce – Nationality: French
Career: Pierce is a hugely successful French-American player. She’s won two grand slam titles, the French and the Australian, as well as 18 WTA events and 2 ITF tournaments. Pierce is a rare female who continues to play well late into life. She’s currently 33 years old, and although currently dealing with injuries, she intends to return to the tour once fully healthy.
40. Lindsay Davenport – Nationality: American
Career: One of the greatest female American players of all time, Davenport has had a long and extremely successful career. She’s won 55 titles, three grand slams, and a gold medal in her fifteen year pro career.
39. Justine Henin – Nationality: Belgian
Career: Henin is one of the greatest female players of all time. She retired at the age of 25, but before retirement
she won seven grand slams and 41 WTA titles.
38. Sabine Lisicki – Nationality: German
Career: Lisicki is a player on the rise, and recently reached her highest career rank of 49th in the world. Sabine is only 19 years old, so she should have a long career still ahead of her.
37. Agnes Szavay – Nationality: Hungarian
Career: Szavay is Hungary’s best female tennis player, and achieved a rank of 13th in the world earlier this year. She’s won 2 WTA tournaments, and 3 ITF tournaments in her career already, and made it to the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2007.
36. Steffi Graf – Nationality: German
Career: Graf is not only one of the greatest female players of all time, she’s probably also one of the most famous as well. Graf was the world’s number one player for 377 weeks. She won 22 Grand Slam titles, and 107 tournaments in all.
35. Iroda Tulyaganova – Nationality: Uzbekistan
Career: Tulyaganova has won three singles titles in her career, but has been plagued by injuries. She is still competing at the age of 26.
34. Marta Marrero – Nationality: Spanish
Career: Marrero has won 8 ITF titles in her career. Her highest career ranking in singles was 47th (2004), doubles was also 47th (2005).
33. Jennifer Capriati – Nationality: American
Career: Capriati turned pro at the unthinkable age of 13. She won an Olympic gold medal in 1992 at the age of 16, and became a world number one in 2001. She also won three Grand Slam titles (two Australian Open titles, and one French Open).
32. Barbara Schett – Nationality: Austrian
Career: Schett’s pro career spanned the years 1992 – 2005. In that time she put up a 349–279 singles record, and her highest ranking was seventh, in 1999. Schett won 13 WTA tournaments in her career.
31. Amanda Coetzer – Nationality: South African
Career: Coetzer is the most successful South African female tennis player of all time. She was ranked as high as number three in the world at one time and won nine individual tournament titles in her career.
30. Carling Bassett – Nationality: Canadian
Career: Bassett was ranked as high as eighth in her career, but she’s perhaps just as well known for her post career disclosure that she had suffered from bulimia for much of her life. Currently runs a tennis center, along with Chris Evert.
29. Sorana Cirstea – Nationality: Romanian
Career: Cirstea is only 18 years old, but has already won five tennis tournaments, including a WTA event. She is possibly a better doubles player, with 10 tournament wins in that event.
28. Iveta Benesova – Nationality: Czech
Career: Benesova turned pro at the age of 15, but has somewhat failed to live up to expectations. She’s never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam event, but she has won five different events, and achieved a high ranking of 33rd (2005).
27. Sania Mirza – Nationality: Indian
Career: Mirza is one of the most famous Indian athletes in the world. She’s only won one event, but has played well in her career, achieving a ranking high of 27th (2007). Mirza is also a solid doubles player, with seven titles and a high ranking of 18th (2007).
26. Caroline Wozniacki – Nationality: Danish
Career: Wozniacki is an accomplished junior’s player, only recently making the steps to pro. She’s already won three WTA events and made it to the third or fourth round of all four grand slams this year. Look for her to make even deeper Grand Slam runs in the coming years.
25. Maria Kirilenko – Nationality: Russian
Career: Kirilenko is another example of the blonde Russian tennis archetype that they churn out so well. She’s got five career titles and a high ranking of 18th (2008).
24. Nicole Vaidisova – Nationality: Czech
Career: One of female tennis’ more recognizable faces currently, Vaidisova is a spokeswoman for Reebok and Citizen watches. She has achieved a ranking high of 7th in the world (2007) and has 8 singles titles under her belt.
23. Marta Domachowska – Nationality: Polish
Career: Domachowska has six ITF singles titles, and her highest world ranking has been 37th (2006). Turned pro at the age of 15.
22. Olga Poutchkova – Nationality: Russian
Career: Yet another Russian blonde, Poutchkova models in her spare time when she’s not playing tennis. She’s been ranked as high as 32nd in the world.
21. Tamira Paszek – Nationality: Austrian
Career: Tamira might look pretty um, advanced, she actually doesn’t turn 18 until this December. She already has two singles titles to her name. Her first WTA win made her the seventh youngest tournament winner of all time.
20. Anastasia Myskina – Nationality: Russian
Career: A female Russian player that’s not blonde? Myskina is definitely an anomaly. The 2004 French Open winner, Myskina has been ranked as highly as second in the world (2004).
19. Klara Zakopalova – Nationality: Czech
Career: Zakopalova has eight career titles and has been ranked as highly as 27th in the world. She is married to a Czech professional soccer player.
18. Flavia Pennetta – Nationality: Italian
Career: Pennetta is a clay specialist, with 13 career titles to her name. She does play well on other surfaces too though, making it to the quarters at the US Open this year. She’s ranked 15th in the world currently.
17. Martina Hingis – Nationality: Czech
Career: Hingis is a well known former player who won five Grand Slam titles. She was also ranked number one in the world for a lengthy period of time. She was unfortunately given a two year ban from the sport for alleged cocaine use, and has said that she won’t be coming back when the ban is completed.
16. Elena Vesnina – Nationality: Russian
Career: Besides the US, Russia is the most well represented country on this list, and here we have another blonde Russian. Vesnina is a middling pro, with two ITF titles and a world ranking high of 40th (2008).
15. Dominika Cibulkova – Nationality: Slovak
Career: Cibulkova is the 11th ranked player in the world, despite just having two tournament wins to her name.
14. Tatiana Golovin – Nationality: French
Career: Golovin reached her personal career best ranking of 12th earlier this year. She has two career titles and has made fairly deep runs into all four of the Grand Slam events at various times.
13. Gabriela Sabatini – Nationality: Argentinian
Career: Sabatini is one of the most famous female tennis players of all time. She put together a staggering career singles record of 632–189 and was ranked as highly as third in the world.
12. Daniela Hantuchova – Nationality: Slovak
Career: Hantuchova has six career titles, and has been ranked as highly as fifth in the world. She’s also an accomplished doubles player, with a ranking high of fifth there as well.
11. Gisela Dulko – Nationality: Argentinian
Career: Dulko’s career highest ranking was 26th (2005). She’s won nine singles titles, and twelve doubles tournaments in her career.
10. Elena Dementieva – Nationality: Russian
Career: The 2008 gold medal winner in Beijing. Dementieva is currently the fourth ranked player in the world. She’s yet to win a Grand Slam, but has reached the finals of the US Open and French.
9. Jelena Jankovic – Nationality: Serbian
Career: The current number one player in the world. She has ten career titles, and frequently makes deep runs into the Grand Slam events.
8. Vojislava Lukic – Nationality: Serbian
Career: Lukic’s career hasn’t been much to write home about (a top ranking of 214th), but she easily makes her list. I’m sure you can see why after doing some looking at her gallery below.
7. Jelena Dokic – Nationality: Australian
Career: Five career titles, and a world ranking high of 4th make Dokic one of the greater female tennis players ever to come out of Australia.
6. Ashley Harkleroad – Nationality: American
Career: Ashley Harkleroad recently made a huge splash by posing on the cover of Playboy, which is obviously enough to get her ranked pretty highly on our list.
5. Ana Ivanovic – Nationality: Serbian
Career: Ivanovic is the 2008 French Open winner, and one of the top players in the world. She’s also the hottest current female player in tennis, as our number one is unfortunately retired.
4. Maria Sharapova – Nationality: Russian
Career: Sharapova is one of the top players in the world right now. She’s won three Grand Slam titles and has been ranked number one in the world at various times.
3. Alona Bondarenko – Nationality: Ukranian
Career: Bondarenko’s ranked in the top 20 in the world, and has six career titles. She recently won the doubles title at the 2008 Australian Open while paired with her sister Kateryna.
2. Anna Kournikova – Nationality: Russian
Career: Sure we could have picked someone else, but that would have just been us being contrary. Kournikova is easily the hottest tennis player to ever play the game, even if she wasn’t one of the greatest as far as talent goes. Which incidentally is actually something of an urban legend – Kournikova never won a singles event, but she’s actually one of the best doubles players in the world, even up to today. Anyway, to the woman that drove millions of search engine queries back in the infancy of the internet – we salute you, the hottest tennis player to ever live.
1. Serena Williams – Nationality: American
Career: Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player who is a World No.1 Ranked. The Women’s Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002. Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles.Williams has also won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles.
