The Defining Moments of Tennis
Tennis has come a long way from the days of wood rackets and players wearing cardigans, flannel pants, bustle skirts and skimmer hats.
Since the modern game began in 1859, tennis has had a storied past with key events to mark every one of its eras — from the long-ago dominance of Helen Wills Moody and Don Budge, to the pioneering feats of Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King, to the modern saga of the Williams sisters.
The defining moments made tennis one of the world’s great sports.
25. The Evolution of the Davis Cup
Date: Aug. 8-10, 1900
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Bottom line: Known as the World Cup of tennis, the Davis Cup began in 1900 at Boston’s Longwood Cricket Club, with the United States defeating Great Britain, 3-0.
Today, it is the world’s largest annual international team competition, featuring 133 nations in 2019.
The United States has won a record 32 titles, followed by Australia with 28.
24. The First Non-Wood Racket
Dates: Aug 30-Sept. 10, 1967
Location: Forest Hills, New York
Bottom line: The biggest technological breakthrough in the sport came in 1967, when the Wilson T-2000 steel racket made its debut. To that point in the century-old sport, rackets had been made of only one substance: wood.
Though Billie Jean King and Clark Graebner debuted the silver racket at the 1967 U.S. National Championships, Jimmy Connors made the T-2000 famous in the years to come.
Wood rackets endured for another decade or so, but the revolution of the Wilson T-2000 ushered in an era of racket innovation that continues to this day.
23. The Day Chrissie Reclaimed Paris
Date: June 8, 1985
Location: Paris, France
Bottom line: By 1985, the Martina Navratilova-Chris Evert rivalry had become a one-sided affair, with Navratilova in the driver’s seat.
When the two greats met on the clay of Roland Garros for the 1985 French Open championship, Navratilova had prevailed in 15 of their previous 16 meetings, and there was little reason to believe this day would be any different.
But Evert proved that her legendary career would not end with a whimper as she prevailed 6-3, 6-7, 7-5 on her favorite surface in perhaps the greatest match of their great rivalry.
22. Pete Sampras’ Wimbledon Run
Dates: 1993-2000
Location: London, England
Bottom line: While Andre Agassi was turning heads in the early 1990s, his reserved American rival, Pete Sampras, was piling up Grand Slam titles.
The bookends of Sampras’ incredible career were his U.S. Open championships 12 years apart, the first one coming as the youngest men’s single champion in the tournament’s history in 1990.
But Sampras’ dominance on Wimbledon’s Centre Court was the true story of his greatness, as he triumphed seven times in eight years from 1993 to 2000.
21. Navratilova Takes Women’s Tennis to a New Level
Dates: Jan. 20-Dec. 6, 1984
Location: WTA tour
Bottom line: Wherever Martina Navratilova ranks among the all-time greats in women’s tennis, one thing is undeniable about her legacy: She elevated the game with a level of athleticism and raw power that had never been seen before.
That dominance was best illustrated by an Open-record 74-match winning streak (including 13 straight tournaments) that encompassed almost all of 1984.
Navratilova’s dominance in the early 1980s paved the way for the likes of Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and the Williams sisters to flex their own muscles and continue to take the game to new heights.
20. McEnroe Coins a Classic
Date: June 22, 1981
Location: London, England
Bottom line: It started with an uncharacteristically polite "excuse me" to the chair umpire from a befuddled John McEnroe during a first-round match at the 1981 Wimbledon.
But when the egregiousness of the blown line call became obvious, McEnroe unleashed the line that would be immortalized in tennis lore: "You cannot be serious!"
The tantrum took McEnroe’s superbrat image to a whole new level, and the line lived on long after McEnroe’s career on the court ended through comedy sketches, commercials and as the title of his autobiography.
19. The Greatest Day in Tennis History
Date: Sept. 8, 1984
Location: New York City
Bottom line: Sept. 8, 1984, is considered the greatest day in the history of tennis, as "Super Saturday" at the U.S. Open featured three classic, back-to-back-to-back matches.
It started with Ivan Lendl prevailing over Pat Cash in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the first men’s semifinal.
Then, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert continued the greatest rivalry in tennis history, as Navratilova rallied after dropping the first set to prevail in the women’s final, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
In the nightcap, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors also went the distance in the second men’s semifinal, with McEnroe surviving in another five-set thriller that ended at 11:14 p.m.
18. Federer’s Remarkable Comeback
Dates: Jan. 2-Nov. 18, 2017
Location: ATP tour
Bottom line: By 2017, Roger Federer already had established himself as one of the the greatest male tennis players ever (if not the greatest). That year, the Swiss great also authored perhaps the greatest comeback story in the history of the sport.
Hobbled by injuries and slowed by age, Federer’s Grand Slam days appeared to be over. But after dropping to No. 16 in the men’s rankings in 2016, Federer stormed back to the top of the sport in 2017, winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon among his seven titles for the year and finishing the season with a 52-5 win-loss record.
17. Agassi Becomes a Tennis Rock Star
Dates: 1986-2006
Location: ATP tour
Bottom line: Andre Agassi wasn’t even the greatest male tennis player of his era (that honor belongs to Pete Sampras), but when the Las Vegas sensation burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, he transformed the sport in ways that went far beyond excellence on the court.
In addition to his dominant baseline game, Agassi was equal parts showman and entertainer with his flowing hair, acid-watched, neon apparel and "image is everything" persona.
Besides style, Agassi had substance, winning eight Grand Slam titles and 60 total career singles events.
16. Murray Ends Britain’s Wimbledon Drought
Date: July 7, 2013
Location: London, England
Bottom line: British tennis fans waited 77 years for a homegrown star to triumph again on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
In 2013, Andy Murray ended the wait with a straight-sets victory over Novak Djokovic, becoming the first Brit since Fred Perry in 1936 to hoist the championship trophy.
Murray took home another Wimbledon men's singles title in 2016.
15. Arthur Ashe’s U.S. Open Victory
Date: Sept. 8, 1968
Location: Flushing Meadow, New York
Bottom line: With the world’s top professionals and amateurs squaring off in the first U.S. Open, few expected a fifth-seeded amateur on leave from the Army to prevail in a field that featured such luminaries as Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall and John Newcombe.
But in a year when America was roiled by racial strife, it was perhaps fitting that Arthur Ashe became the first African-American man to win a Grand Slam tournament.
Ashe went on to become one of the most consequential and influential athletes of his era.
14. Margaret Smith Court’s Championship Haul
Dates: 1960-1975
Location: Around the world
Bottom line: Margaret Court is largely overshadowed in tennis history by Billie Jean King’s pioneering feats (and the fact Court lost to Bobby Riggs before King’s "Battle of the Sexes" triumph). But in terms of pure dominance, the Court's legacy of 64 major championships remains unmatched.
From 1960 to 1975, the Australian great won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, along with 21 major titles in mixed doubles and 19 in doubles.
In 1970, she became the second woman in history (and first during the Open Era) to win a calendar Grand Slam.
13. Gibson Breaks the Color Barrier
Date: Aug. 25, 1950
Location: Forest Hills, New York
Bottom line: What Jackie Robinson was to baseball, Althea Gibson was to tennis.
In 1950, Gibson became the first African-American to compete at the U.S. National Championships. And like Jackson, Gibson did much more than simply break barriers; she excelled and dominated her sport like few before or since.
Gibson appeared in 19 major finals from 1956-58, winning 11 championships (five singles, five doubles, one mixed doubles). In 1956, she became the first African-American to win a Grand Slam title, capturing the French Championships.
12. Borg and McEnroe’s Epic Wimbledon Duel
Date: July 5, 1980
Location: London, England
Bottom line: Wimbledon had been making tennis memories for over a century when Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe stepped onto Centre Court for the 1980 championship.
But the masterpiece the two legends produced on that Sunday afternoon was unlike anything that had come before.
The classic always will be remembered for McEnroe surviving an 18-16 fourth-set tiebreaker in which he saved five match points, before Borg prevailed 8-6 in the fifth for his record fifth consecutive crown.
11. The Stabbing of Monica Seles
Date: April 30, 1993
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Bottom line: The history of women’s tennis changed forever on this spring day, and it had nothing to do with anything that happened on the court between Monica Seles and Magdalena Maleeva.
A crazed fan of Seles’ rival, Steffi Graf, plunged a knife into Seles’ back between games. Seles, who was the top-ranked women’s player in the world at the time, survived and recovered, but she was never the same.
Only 19 at the time, Seles already had won eight Grand Slam titles, with a match record of 55-1 in major tournaments. She might have gone on to become the greatest women’s player of all time.
10. The First Women’s Tennis Tour
Date: Sept. 23, 1970
Location: Houston, Texas
Bottom line: Fed up with the sport’s appalling pay disparity between men and women players, a group of nine female players led by Billie Jean King set out in 1970 to create their own women’s tour.
Despite threats that they would be banned from playing in Grand Slam tournaments, the women persisted and created the Virginia Slims Tour. That led to the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973, and the rest is history.
King isn't done fighting for pay equality, either. "Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs, and I want women to have the cake, the icing and the cherry on top, too," the tennis legend said in 2016.
9. The Classic Down Under
Date: Jan. 29, 2012
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Bottom Line: If the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal 2008 Wimbledon final ranks as the greatest men’s match ever, then the 2012 Australian Open final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal may be a close second.
The longest Grand Slam final ever at 5 hours and 53 minutes, this war of attrition (which included an exhausting 31-shot rally) ended with Djokovic prevailing 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 at 1:37 a.m.
8. Nadal’s French Open Dominance
Dates: 2005-present
Location: Paris, France
Bottom Line: Perhaps no player in the history of any sport has so dominated an event the way Rafael Nadal has dominated the French Open during his incredible career.
With a 93-2 career record on the clay of Roland Garros (through 2019), Nadal is the first player of the Open era, man or woman, to win the same Grand Slam 12 times. Nadal’s only losses at Roland Garros came in 2009 to Robin Soderling and 2015 to Novak Djokovic.
7. The Greatest Sibling Rivalry in Sports
Dates: 1998 to present
Location: WTA tour, around the world
Bottom line: It’s hard to dispute that Serena and Venus Williams have produced the greatest sibling rivalry in the history of sports. In fact, it’s difficult to envision two family members who have dominated a sport so completely in the same era.
Both have been ranked No. 1 in the world at various points in their careers and have faced each other 30 times (with Serena leading 18-12), including meeting in four consecutive Grand Slam finals in 2002 and 2003.
They’ve also teamed up to win 22 titles together in doubles.
6. The Dawn of the Open Era
Date: April 22-27, 1968
Location: Bournemouth, England
Bottom line: The most significant structural development in the history of the sport was the advent of the Open era in 1968, which allowed the sport’s best amateurs and professionals to compete head to head in major tournaments.
Before that, the Grand Slams had only been "open" to amateurs, leaving some of the sport’s greats unable to face off on its greatest stages.
It was like Olympic basketball before the “Dream Team” arrived in 1992. The British Hard Court Championships of April 1968 ushered in the golden era of tennis that continues to this day.
5. The 'Battle of the Sexes'
Date: Sept. 20, 1970
Location: Houston, Texas
Bottom line: If ever there were a sporting event that transcended sports, it was the "Battle of the Sexes" match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973.
King’s victory over the 55-year-old ex-tennis champion and "self-described hustler and male chauvinist" struck a major blow for gender equity during the height of the feminist movement.
The match at the Houston Astrodome was seen in prime time by an estimated 90 million television viewers.
4. Nadal, Federer and the Greatest Match Ever
Date: July 6, 2008
Location: London, England
Bottom line: It was only fitting that the two men widely regarded as the greatest male players in tennis history met each other in what is often regarded as the greatest match in the sport’s history, played at its greatest tournament.
The 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal topped even the Borg-McEnroe classic 28 years earlier in terms of sheer drama.
Nadal ended Federer’s quest for a sixth consecutive Wimbledon crown in five scintillating sets played out over nearly seven hours because of rain delays.
3. The First Grand Slam
Date: Sept. 24, 1938
Location: Forest Hills, New York
Bottom line: Don Budge made history in 1938 by winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon and United States singles championships to complete the sport’s first calendar Grand Slam.
His dominance was on full display when he became the first man to sweep through Wimbledon without losing a set. He completed the Slam with a four-set victory over Gene Mako at the U.S. National Championships.
Rod Laver is the only man to repeat Budge’s Grand Slam feat, accomplishing it in 1962 and 1969.
2. The Dominance of Helen Wills Moody
Dates: 1927-33
Location: Around the world
Bottom line: Perhaps no individual streak in the history of sports is as impressive — and untouchable — as what Helen Wills Moody accomplished from 1927-33.
During that six-year stretch, she won an incredible 180 consecutive matches without losing a set, including 14 of her then-record 19 major singles championships.
Wills often played against male opponents, finding that the stronger competition helped develop her game, and was the undisputed queen of the world's tennis court in her day.
1. The First Wimbledon
Date: July 9, 1877
Location: London, England
Bottom line: The Championships, Wimbledon (as it’s officially known), is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and still the most distinguished. It is to tennis what the Masters is to golf.
It all began on July 9, 1877, with 21 amateurs competing at the All Croquet Lawn and Tennis Club for a 25 guinea trophy. W. Spencer Gore needed only 48 minutes to dispatch of William Marshall in the final, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Grand Slam tennis was here to stay.