This is a list of Women's Tennis Association (WTA) records since its inception in 1973. Some tournaments from the predecessor tour, the Virginia Slims Circuit, are also included for completeness. The Virginia Tour Circuit started in September 1970 and was replaced in 1973 by the WTA. For a list of Open Era records (1968–present) see the article List of open era tennis records.
These tables include only official WTA tour and Virginia Slims Circuit events.
Note: Players Billie Jean King and Evonne Goolagong Cawley careers began before the WTA was formed and continued after. Their full Grand Slam tournament statistics are higher than other players listed here.
Note These statistics were compiled from each players individual Grand Slam tournament performances past and present.
Sources: Except for the information concerning active players, the source for the all-time table is the '2012 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Official Guide'. Court and Wade began their careers and were winning events long before the open era started in 1968; therefore, the statistics shown above do not reflect their entire careers. For example, the Billie Jean King career statistics Wikipedia article lists 129 career singles titles for King. And an external website claims that Court won 197 and Wade won 68 career singles titles and 2010 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Official Guide, compiled by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, page 163.
Note that the figures below represent career winning percentages of players that are retired (regular font) as well as current active players (boldface). The latter are subject to change and do not reflect the final figure.
This table lists the players with the most career singles wins over the World No. 1 ranked player since the Women's Tennis Association began computerized rankings on November 3, 1975.
Source: 2012 WTA Media Guide, compiled by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, page 178.
Lowest-Ranked players to defeat World No. 1
This table lists the lowest-ranked players to defeat World No. 1 ranked player since the Women's Tennis Association began computerized rankings on November 3, 1975. (Not including matches in which No.1-ranked player retired.)
In the following table,[1] only the first tournament won by each player is listed. For example, Capriati won two additional tournaments before reaching the age of Seles listed below.
Tracy Austin: 14 years, 0 months, 28 days (1977 Portland)
Kathy Rinaldi: 14 years, 6 months, 24 days (1981 Kyoto)
Monica Seles: 15 years, 4 months, 29 days (1989 Houston)
Oldest winners of a singles title
In the following table,[1] only the last tournament won by each player is listed. For example, Navratilova won many other tournaments between the ages of 33 and 37.