Smith rose to prominence after winning the Australian Open singles championship in 1960. She won the Wimbledon singles championship in 1963, 1965, and 1970, the US Open singles title in 1962, 1965, 1969, 1970, and 1973, and the French Open singles title in 1962, 1969, 1970, and 1973. Smith's overall victory mark is 9 out of 9. She is the only person ever to win the Grand Slam in three different decades: the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1980s.
Court won her first Grand Slam singles title at the age of 16 years and 110 days, which was then a record for youngest winner of a Grand Slam event. The record has since been broken several times (Amy Frazier was 14 years and 279 days when she won the 1977 US Open). Still, Court is one of only four women in history to have won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open - the others are Graf, Navratilova, and McEnroe.
She went on to dominate tennis in the 1970s, winning 11 more Grand Slam singles titles. In addition, Court won the WTA Hall of Fame Award in 1985. She retired from professional tennis in 1981, but returned in 1984 to help Australia win the Davis Cup for the first time in 25 years. She lost her last two matches in the final series against Sweden, but still received a silver medal for her efforts.
She earned her first U.S. Open singles title in 1967 and the Australian Open singles title the following year to her list of successes. Billie Jean King attained the goal she set for herself as a little child when she was ranked one in the world in women's tennis in 1966. She said she would be happy with just being number one in the country and didn't care about being number one in the world.
Number one in the country wasn't enough for King, though. She wanted to be number one in the world too and that is exactly what she achieved after winning the Australian Open. Her victory made her the first female player to ever hold both the U.S. Open and Australian Open titles at the same time. The only other woman to have done so was Gussie Moran who held the titles in 1944. King remained number one in the world for several months after winning in Australia because no one could dethrone her. She lost only two matches all year long and finished with a 62 match win streak.
After such a great season, it came as no surprise when King was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the U.S. National Tennis Awards show which was held in January 1968. The award was given to the best female tennis player in the United States. King won three other awards during the ceremony including the Golden Shovel Award which went to Mickey Waller for his role in promoting women's tennis in America.
She began playing tennis at the age of eight and was 18 when she won the first of seven straight singles championships at the Australian Championships in 1960. Court became the first female Australian player to win a Grand Slam title outside of Australia when she won the French and US Championships in 1962. She remains the only female player to have done so.
Court played in two World Wars and still holds several records for most career wins at a single event (en route to being named the best tennis player in the world). She retired from professional tennis in 1976 but continued to play until 1979 when she suffered a knee injury that forced her to retire for three years.
Court returned to the tour in 1983 at the age of 39 and went on to win four more titles before retiring for a second time in 1984. She has since been voted as the greatest female tennis player of all time by various sources.
She made her professional debut in 1994 and quickly gained recognition for her strong serves and groundstrokes. She was the first unseeded U.S. Open women's finalist in the open era, losing to Martina Hingis in 1997. Williams won Wimbledon and the US Open in 2000, and she successfully defended her championships in 2001. She is the only woman to have done so.
Venus Alexandra Williams-Gordyńczyk (Polish: [ˈvɛns əlʒɑːstwiˈnɪs ɡɔrtysnk]; born August 23, 1977) is a American former tennis player who became one of the world's best female players during her career. A four-time Grand Slam champion, she is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist. Williams has been named the No. 1 female tennis player of all time by ESPN and the Tennis Channel. She currently plays on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour and has earned more than $10 million since turning pro in 1994. She is also the most successful player in the history of the Miami Open, having won six singles titles and three doubles titles in her home city.
Williams began playing tennis at the age of 3 when her father brought the sport to his high school in South Florida. She went on to win 16 individual awards as a high school player and led her team to the state championship.
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