Serena Williams Came Back - Is She The GOAT ? - July 3, 2026

She’s Certainly In The Top Two Or Three

Earlier this week Serena Williams competed in the 2026 Wimbledon tennis tournament, for the first time in four years.  While she lost her opening round match to 20 year old, 87th ranked American, Maya Joint, I was impressed that Williams returned to complete in a Grand Slam tennis tournament at the age of 44, and after a four absence.  This got me thinking about Williams’ accomplishments in pro tennis, and if she should be considered the Greatest Tennis Player Of All Time…female or male?! 

If we consider lifetime Grand Slam singles titles as the primary metric for being considered the greatest tennis player ever, Williams is certainly in the conversation.  She ranks second overall with 23 Grand Slam singles titles, winning the Australian Open seven times, the French Open three times, Wimbledon seven times, and the US Open six times. This total puts her just behind Novak Djokovic and Margaret Court who both have 24 Grand Slam singles titles.  Serena is ahead of Rafael Nadal and Steffi Graff, both of whom have 22 such titles, Roger Federer who has 20 Grand Slam singles titles and Martina Navratilova who captured 18 Grand Slam singles titles.

When we also take into consideration that Williams has 14 Grand Slam titles in Women’s Doubles and two Grand Slam titles in Mixed Doubles competition, that brings her total number of Grand Slam titles to 39.  While that accomplishment places Williams near the top of the recent generation of tennis players, both female or male, overall it does place her in a tie for third with Billie Jean King with 39 titles, and behind first-place Margaret Court (64 titles) and second place holder Martina Navratilova (59 titles), for the overall total number of Grand Slam titles.  Serena Williams won a record ten Grand Slam titles after turning 30 years of age; her success wasn't front-end loaded in her career.  

However, the Open Era, which began in 1968 and continues today, is generally considered more challenging than the pre-Open Era because it brought together the world's best players in the same tournaments. Before that, the sport was divided between amateurs and professionals.  Pre-1968, if a top amateur turned professional, they were barred from the Grand Slam tournaments. As a result, Grand Slam fields often did not include many of the world's best players.  This is important because Margaret Court won 13 of her 24 singles Grand Slam titles in the pre-Open Era.  By comparison, Serena Williams won all 23 of her singles Grand Slam titles in the Open Era, against fully professional fields of competition. And, every one of Martina Navratilova's 18 Grand Slam singles titles were also won during the Open Era.

Margaret Court was unquestionably one of the greatest players in history. She dominated the competition that was available to her.  Her total of 64 Grand Slam titles (singles, doubles and mixed doubles) remains an all-time record, but 36 of her 64 titles came before the Open Era, when many elite professionals were excluded from Grand Slam competition.

Serena held the WTA number-one women's ranking for a total of 319 weeks, placing her third all-time amongst the women in this regard, behind only Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.  She first became the world’s number 1 ranked female tennis player at aged 20, lost and regained the number 1 ranking multiple times over the next 15 years and held the top position again, well into her mid-thirties.  One of Serena's most impressive achievements was her 186 consecutive weeks at number 1, from February 2013 to September 2016. That tied the all-time WTA women’s record set by Steffi Graf. 

How does this compare to the men?  Williams’ total of 319 weeks at number 1 ranks second only to Novak Djokovic, who was number 1 in the men’s ranking for a total of 428 weeks.  Serena’s streak of 186 consecutive weeks at number 1 places her second to Roger Federer, who held top spot in the men’s ranking for 237 consecutive weeks. 

The notion of Serena Williams being the GOAT (“Greatest Of All Time”) has been floated for consideration before.  In 2018, Roger Federer said Williams had a case for being named the  "Greatest Of All Time," man or woman. In 2022, John McEnroe described Williams as an "icon" and the "GOAT of GOATs."  Despite these accolades from two tennis greats, and despite all the accomplishments we’ve outlined above, Serena Williams isn’t the GOAT of pro tennis, but Martina Navratilova is.  

Navratilova has 31 women's doubles Grand Slam titles, an all-time record, and her 59 total Grand Slam titles (singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined) are second only to Margaret Court's 64.  She won Grand Slam titles over a span of more than 30 years, capturing her last major title, the mixed doubles at the 2006 US Open, at age 49.  

Thus given that Martina Navratilova’s record exceeds that of any of the top male or female competitors during the Open Era, she has to be considered pro tennis’ Greatest Of All Time. 

I do anticipate an objection to the logic being used in this article, which suggests that either Serena Williams or Martina Navratilova are the greatest of all time, instead of Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer.  That potential objection being that I’m mixing men’s tennis rankings and statistics, in with those for the women’s game, and that as a result this article is mixing apples and oranges in these comparisons - one could argue that men’s tennis and women’s tennis are not the same game.  That may be a fair objection but this analysis is based on these individuals dominating their segment of the same sport, where the rules of the sport are generally the same.  One other point to note in the gender angle of the discussion, is that both Williams and Navratilova played and won titles in Doubles competition and Mixed Doubles Competition, in addition to the standard singles competitions. We don’t see that from Djokovic or Federer, or any of the top ranked male tennis players.   So the women are actually playing in two or three tournaments at the same time, while the male tennis players don't do that.  

I suppose one could ask the question, how would Martina Navratilova or Serena Williams have fared against male opponents?  A direct comparison would be challenging.  The average first serve speed of a professional women's player is usually around 105 mph, and the average serve for a professional men's player is around 120 mph. Women also play a best-of-three sets format in Grand Slam tournaments, while the men play best-of-five, to account for the greater strength and stamina of the male players.  This complicates any kind of direct comparison.  Navratilova and Williams dominated pro tennis in a manner that was unmatched by any other male or female tennis player.  Serena comes close, but Martina is the GOAT of tennis. 

Perhaps there should be a male tennis GOAT and a female tennis GOAT, but that type of discussion would be the easy way out of this conversion.  A more interesting approach is picking one person as the Greatest Of All Time, regardless of gender.