A Fun Little Tennis Fact

While looking at historical Grand Slam winners in tennis earlier today, I noticed something about the women's list that appealed to my sense of order and neatness in the statistical record

Margaret Smith Court, one of the greatest players ever, won her first Grand Slam at the 1960 Australian Open. Thirteen years later, at the 1973 US Open, she won her last.

Several months later, 19-year-old Chris Evert won the 1974 French Open, her first Grand Slam in four tries (she had reached the finals in three of the previous four tournaments, losing to Court, Billie Jean King, and Evonne Goolagong). She won seventeen more Grand Slam singles, the last coming against Martina Navratilova at Roland Garros in 1986.

The next year, on the same court, Steffi Graf won her first Grand Slam, beating Navratilova in three sets (Navratilova exacted her revenge at a later date, topping Graf at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows later in the year). In the next thirteen years, Graf won more Grand Slams than anyone except Court, 22 of them in all; like Evert, she bookended her major wins nicely, again going three sets against Martina (Hingis, this time) at the French Open.

At that same French Open, Serena Williams teamed with her sister Venus to win the doubles title over Hingis and Anna Kournikova. Later in the year, at the US Open, she took home her first singles title, beating Hingis in straight sets.

So, to recap:

Margaret Smith Court wins her first in 1960, her last in 1973;
Chris Evert wins her first in 1974, her last in 1986;
Steffi Graf wins her first in 1987, her last in 1999;
Serena Williams wins her first in 1999.

There were obviously other outstanding players active between 1960 and 2009 (King, Navratilova, Monica Seles), but I found it interesting that the careers of these four greats* bookended so neatly. There are 74 Grand Slam titles on display between them, plus whatever else Serena wins, none of which were won within the parameters of another's career.

*Some might object to the inclusion of Serena Williams as one of the "greats". I included her for two reasons: one, the location of her Grand Slam wins fit with the rest of the general outline, and two, I think there's this general feeling out there that she could've had at least a couple more titles under her belt if she had chosen to apply herself more fully to the game.