This article details the list of women's singles Grand Slam tournaments tennis champions. Some major changes have taken place in history and have affected the number of titles that have been won by various players. These have included the opening of the French national championships to international players in 1925, the elimination of the challenge round in 1922, and the admission of professional players in 1968 (the start of the Open Era). Since then, 60 women have won at least one grand slam.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
All of these tournaments have been listed based on the modern definition of a tennis major, rather than when they were officially recognized by the ILTF. The Australian, French Championships, and U.S. tournaments were officially recognized by the ILTF in 1924, though the French Championships were not played in 1924 because of the Olympics. The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) had several grievances with the ILTF and refused to join when it was formed in 1913.[9]
From 1913 to 1923 there were three official championships recognized by the ILTF:
- World Grass Court Championships – Wimbledon.
- World Hard Court Championships, held in Paris on clay courts.
- World Covered Court Championships, held in Europe on an indoor wood surface.
During that same time period the USLTA recognized the U.S. National Championships and did not recognize any world championship.
- U.S. National Championships, held in New York on grass.
- ^ ESPN Sports Almanac 2006, page 814
- ^ World Book Encyclopedia 2008 T p166a
- ^ Compton Encyclopedia 1975 ST p301
- ^ Concord Encyclopedia
- ^ CBS Sports "[1] Archived 2009-02-04 at the Wayback Machine"
- ^ Top End Sports "[2] Archived 2009-07-10 at the Wayback Machine"
- ^ [3] Archived 2011-01-22 at the Wayback Machine"
- ^ Tennis 28 Slams "[4] Archived 2009-07-22 at the Wayback Machine"
- ^ Robertson, Max (1974). The Encyclopedia of Tennis. Viking Press. pp. 28–30.