Wimbledon Greats

The fact that Wimbledon is played on grass makes it quite different to other Grand Slam tournaments and it is therefore considered quite difficult to win, making it a much-prized achievement for the world’s best players.

Looking at who has won the most Wimbledon championships overall, it is a tie between Billie Jean King back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and Martina Navratilova in the ’80s and ‘90s, both of them winning 20 times overall (counting singles and doubles tournaments separately).

In the women’s singles, Martina Navratilova is clearly ahead, with nine total wins – a fact that has been put down to her ‘serve and volley’ style, which is rare among female players but works very well on Wimbledon’s grass courts. In the men’s singles, it is a tie between William Renshaw, who played at Wimbledon in the 19th century, and Pete Sampras in the ‘90s, with both of them winning seven times. Many believe this is not exactly a fair comparison, as Renshaw was the winner of a much smaller tournament. Also, last year’s winner was allowed to skip out the earlier rounds at that time, meaning that they had an advantage over their opponents – no longer the case today. On balance, it would appear to be Sampras who deserves his place alongside Navratilova as the most successful Wimbledon players ever.

At the moment, of course, Roger Federer is on a winning streak. Generally considered the best tennis player in the world today, with the potential to be one of the greatest of all time, the Swiss master has won every year since 2002 – a feat only matched in recent decades by Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg. It’s hard to make predictions in tennis, but Federer could even beat out Sampras’ winning streak of seven, seeing as he is already over halfway there.

John Gibb is the owner of Wimbledon facts, For more information on Wimbledon check out http://www.wimbledon-information-and-guidance2k.info

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