# Who is the greatest women's tennis player of the 1980s?

> The decade the women's game turned professional in every sense — serve-and-volley against the baseline, two dominant champions and a teenager who ended the argument in 1988.

*By YPB Team · Published September 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-womens-tennis-player-of-the-1980s*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Martina Navratilova**
   Won 86 of 87 matches in 1983 and took eighteen of her major titles across the decade.
2. **Chris Evert**
   Won at least one major every year from 1974 to 1986 and never left the top four.
3. **Steffi Graf**
   Arrived late in the decade and closed it with the 1988 Golden Slam.
4. **Hana Mandlikova**
   Four majors and the only player besides Graf to beat both Evert and Navratilova at a slam.
5. **Tracy Austin**
   Two US Open titles and world No. 1 before back injuries ended it at twenty-one.
6. **Pam Shriver**
   Twenty-one major doubles titles with Navratilova, including a calendar Grand Slam in 1984.
7. **Gabriela Sabatini**
   A Wimbledon and US Open finalist who beat everyone in the decade at least once.
8. **Helena Sukova**
   Two singles slam finals and the player who ended Navratilova's 74-match streak.
9. **Zina Garrison**
   An Olympic gold medallist in doubles and a Wimbledon singles finalist.
10. **Claudia Kohde-Kilsch**
   A top-five singles player and a Wimbledon and US Open doubles champion.
11. **Manuela Maleeva**
   A top-ten fixture for most of the decade and the 1984 Italian Open champion.
12. **Andrea Jaeger**
   A Wimbledon and French Open finalist before turning nineteen.
13. **Kathy Rinaldi**
   A Wimbledon semi-finalist who turned professional at fourteen and stayed top-twenty all decade.
14. **Arantxa Sanchez Vicario**
   Ended the decade by beating Graf to win the 1989 French Open at seventeen.

Tags: 80s, sports, tennis, womens tennis, wta