Most Wimbledon Singles Titles of All Time
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The first Wimbledon tournament was held in 1877, and a lot of tennis history has been made at the All England Club since then.
These are the players with the most WImbledon singles titles of all time — both men's and women's — at the oldest tennis tournament in the world.
13. Bjorn Borg — 5 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980
Bottom line: There's no career full of more "what ifs" than Swedish superstar Bjorn Borg, who won 11 career Grand Slam singles titles but retired at the height of his talent and fame in 1984 to become a fashion designer.
What's even more shocking about Borg's 11 Grand Slam titles is that he never won an Australian Open or U.S. Open title, despite making it to the finals at the U.S. Open four times.
But, of course, he won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles from 1976 to 1980.
13. Lottie Dod — 5 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, 1893
Bottom line: Lottie Dodd won the first of her five Wimbledon singles titles in 1887, when she was just 15 years old. She remains the youngest singles champion in the tournament's history.
Dod is also in the conversation with the greatest women's athletes of all time. She won the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship, founded and played for England's national women's field hockey team and won a silver medal at the 1908 Olympics in archery.
Dod died in 1960, at 88 years old.
13. Laurence Doherty — 5 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906
Bottom line: British tennis player Laurence Doherty became the first non-American to win the U.S. Open in 1903, the only year he won a Grand Slam singles title outside of Wimbledon.
Doherty won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles between 1902 and 1906 — one more Wimbledon title than his older brother, Reginald Doherty.
It was playing with Reginald where Laurence gained perhaps his greatest amount of fame in the tennis world. They won 10 Grand Slam doubles titles together, including eight at Wimbledon.
10. Billie Jean King — 6 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1975
Bottom line: Billie Jean King is known to sports fans around the world for her famous "Battle of the Sexes" match against former world No. 1 Bobby Riggs in 1973. But she's so much more than that.
King spearheaded movements for gender equality and pay equality for females in sports but was also a champion tennis player. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles in her career and was never more successful than she was at Wimbledon, where she won six championships.
10. Suzanne Lenglen — 6 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925
Bottom line: Suzanne Lenglen became the world's first No. 1 female tennis player in 1921, two years after she won her first Wimbledon singles title and the first of five consecutive titles at Wimbledon.
French media called Lenglen "La Divine" — The Goddess — for her exploits on the court, including two singles titles at the French Open in her native Paris, France. Lenglen at one point in her career won 179 consecutive matches and is considered the first global tennis superstar.
Lenglen died in 1938, at 39 years old, after battling an undisclosed illness.
10. Blanche Bingley — 6 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1886, 1889, 1894, 1897, 1899, 1900
Bottom line: Blanche Bingley competed in the first Wimbledon in 1884 and won five of her six Wimbledon singles titles in the 1880s and 1890s, with her final title coming in 1900. Bingley also finished as Wimbledon runner-up seven times.
Bingley still holds several Wimbledon records, including most Wimbledon finals with 13 and most years between Wimbledon championships at 14 years.
Bingley died in 1946, at 82 years old.
4. Novak Djokovic — 7 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
Bottom line: Novak Djokovic has been the best tennis player in the world for the last decade and has the most Grand Slam singles titles in history.
Djokovic completed his career Grand Slam with a win at the French Open in 2016 and has won three of the four Grand Slam titles twice in a single year, in 2011 and 2015.
Djokovic won his fourth straight Wimbledon title in 2022.
4. Serena Williams — 7 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016
Bottom line: The greatest women's tennis player of all time argument boils down to Serena Williams, Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. And if you want to go by the numbers, it's Williams.
She's won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, which is the most in the Open Era and trails just Margaret Court's 24 titles. For most players, winning seven titles at an individual Grand Slam event would make it their most dominant accomplishment, but Serena has actually won seven times at both Wimbledon and at the Australian Open.
According to Forbes, Williams has an estimated net worth of $200 million and earned $36 million in 2020.
4. Steffi Graf — 7 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996
Bottom line: Steffi Graf's first of seven Wimbledon singles titles came in 1988 — arguably the greatest single year for any woman in tennis history. That's when Graf became the first woman to achieve a Golden Slam in 1988 by winning all four major singles titles plus an Olympic gold medal.
Graf won all seven of her Wimbledon titles in a nine-year stretch from 1988 to 1996, including three consecutive titles form 1991 to 1993. Graf's 22 major singles titles are third all-time behind Margaret Court and Serena Williams.
4. Pete Sampras — 7 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
Bottom line: No one dominated the 1990s like Pete Sampras, who can lay claim to being the greatest American tennis player of all time.
Sampras won 12 of his 14 Grand Slam titles in the 1990s, and missed out on winning eight consecutive Wimbledon titles with his loss to Richard Krajicek in the 1996 quarterfinals.
The only thing missing on Sampras' resume is a French Open title, and he never even really came close. The farthest he made it was the French Open semifinals in 1996.
4. Dorothea Lambert Chambers — 7 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1903, 1904, 1906, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914
Bottom line: All seven of Dorothea Lambert Chambers' Grand Slam singles titles came at Wimbledon, and she made history in 1911 when she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam singles final without losing a game, defeating Dora Boothby 6-0, 6-0.
It was a feat that would go unmatched for 87 years, until 18-year-old German Steffi Graf defeated Natalia Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in the French Open final.
4. William Renshaw — 7 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1889
Bottom line: William Renshaw's six consecutive Wimbledon titles from 1881 to 1886 are still a record, and he held the record for most Wimbledon titles with Pete Sampras until Roger Federer won his eighth Wimbledon title in 2017.
Playing in an era where there were only two Grand Slam events, Renshaw beat his twin brother, Ernest Renshaw, three times in the singles finals. William and Ernest combined five times to win the Wimbledon doubles championship as well.
William Renshawn died in 1904, at just 43 years old, due to epileptic convulsions.
2. Helen Wills Moody — 8 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936
Bottom line: California native Helen Wills Moody was the first American female tennis player to become a global celebrity, winning 180 consecutive matches from 1927 to 1933 — a stretch that included six Wimbledon singles titles and a win over the No. 8 American men's player in an exhibition match.
Moody won her eighth Wimbledon singles title in 1936. The record stood until Martina Navratilova won her ninth title in 1990.
2. Roger Federer — 8 (Tie)
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Wimbledon championships: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2017
Bottom line: Roger Federer came as close as humanly possible to winning a ninth Wimbledon title in an epic tiebreaker loss to Novak Djokovic in the 2019 Wimbledon final.
That close loss underlines his dominance at the tournament. He won five consecutive Wimbledon titles from 2003 to 2007, then added three more titles in 2009, 2012 and 2017.
Federer has $130 million in career earnings and completed the career Grand Slam with his only French Open title in 2009.
1. Martina Navratilova — 9
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Wimbledon championships: 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990
Bottom line: Half of Martina Navratilova's 18 Grand Slam singles titles came at Wimbledon, where she won her first title in 1978 at 21 years old. Her 18th and final Grand Slam singles title also came at Wimbledon in 1990.
Navratilova's record nine Wimbledon singles titles could find company in the next few years. Men's superstar Novak Djokovic had six Wimbledon wins heading into the 2022 tournament.