Chapter 7: 50 years after the WTA was created, its future is now—and never-ending

Tennis Channel's year-long celebration of the WTA Tour's 50th anniversary, brought to you by Intuit Quickbooks, continues with Chapter 7: The Future is Now (Watch our feature video above.)

• For Chapter 1: Thank You, Gladys, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 2: Red Hot Women's Tennis, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 3: Chrissie & Martina, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 4: Steffi & Monica, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 5: Venus & Serena, CLICK HERE
• For Chapter 6: Teenage Dream, CLICK HERE

The 21st century has been a remarkable time for the Hologic WTA Tour, a period of tremendous expansion and the emergence of contemporary champions from more corners of the globe than anyone could have ever dared imagine.

To a great degree, the WTA’s seeds of contemporary excellence were planted amid two major developments that took place in the late 1970s and early '80s. The first was the very success of the tour itself. As the story goes, in June 1978, Richard Williams saw Virginia Ruzici earn $40,000 for winning Roland Garros that year. Upon witnessing such an accomplishment, Williams had the vision of raising two daughters who would in time become champions. It happened, the journey of Venus and Serena Williams arguably the greatest story in the history of sports.

Many others during those years were inspired by what was happening on the WTA Tour. All over the world, thousands emulated the smooth Chrissie Evert, her two-handed backhand a game-changer that took groundstroke proficiency to new levels of power and precision seemingly every five years—a line of greats that ran from Tracy Austin to Monica Seles to Mary Pierce to Lindsay Davenport to Jennifer Capriati to Kim Clijsters to Maria Sharapova and on into the contemporary game. On a more literal basis, look no further than a fine Czech player named Melanie Molitor, who in 1980 named her daughter Martina in honor of the great Navratilova. By her teens, Martina Hingis had become No. 1 in the world.

The second factor in the WTA’s grand reach was the return of tennis to the Olympics. Tennis had last been part of the Games back in 1924. There first came a test competition at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The women’s singles tournament was won by a highly promising 15-year-old German, Stefanie Graf. Fittingly, when tennis became a full-fledged Olympic event four years later, Graf was the winner, capping off an incredible year that also saw her take the singles titles at all four majors. That quartet of victories, along with Graf’s Olympic gold, was instantly dubbed “The Golden Slam.”

As an Olympic sport, tennis’ credibility and profile was raised in dozens of countries. This triggered an explosion in the sport’s overall significance, nations committing resources to player development, and, eventually, the ascent of excellent players. Starting in the 1990s, first-time women’s Grand Slam singles champions have emerged from a bevy of countries—Croatia, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Serbia, Italy, China, Belarus, Latvia, Denmark, Japan, Canada, Poland, Kazakhstan. Though it’s not easy to draw a linear connection between the Olympics and greatness, there’s no question that tennis’ increased popularity in so many more countries has had a catalytic effect on the game’s growth.

Over this time, no two players have left a bigger legacy than the Williamses. An incredible 20-plus years of excellence began in 1997 when 17-year-old Venus reached the US Open final. More than 20 years later, Serena was the runner-up in New York at the 2019 US Open. All told, the sisters have won a staggering 30 Grand Slam singles titles (23 for Serena, seven for Venus).

So enduring were Venus and Serena that they eventually competed versus players for whom they were role models. Highly inspired by Richard Williams and his daughters, Leonard Francois and Tamaka Osaka vowed to raise a pair of world-class tennis players. The oldest, Mari, would eventually be ranked as high as 280. The youngest, Naomi, would reach No. 1 in the world and, to date, four Grand Slam singles titles. Having just had her first child, Osaka intends to return to the tour in 2024.

Many more champions remain active.

• Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, twice a winner at the Australian Open (2012-’13), continues going strong at the age of 33.
• Angelique Kerber, currently on maternity leave, earned the first of three majors at the 2016 Australian Open, going on that year to victory at the US Open and Wimbledon in ’18.
• Spaniard Garbine Muguruza went the distance at Roland Garros in 2016 and Wimbledon in ’17.
• Amazingly, Latvian Jelena Ostapenko’s first career singles title came when she went the distance at Roland Garros in 2017.
• Romanian Simona Halep earned a pair of majors at Roland Garros in 2018 and Wimbledon a year later.
• Canadian Bianca Andreescu, American Sofia Kenin and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic each revealed a wide range of technical and tactical diversity with their respective title runs at the 2019 US Open, ’20 Australian Open and ’21 Roland Garros.
• And Emma Raducanu made what’s arguably the most incredible triumph of all-time when she came out of the qualifying to win the 2021 US Open, a victory that made her the first woman from Great Britain to win a singles major since 1977.

Four-time major winner Iga Swiatek comes from Poland, a nation that had previously never seen a Grand Slam singles champion. Swiatek’s first came with a brilliant effort at Roland Garros in 2020. She blossomed even further in 2022, once again winning in Paris and closing out a dominant year with a victory at the US Open. More recently, Swiatek repeated at Roland Garros.

But rivals have emerged to strongly challenge Swiatek. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan won Wimbledon in 2022 and beat Swiatek in the round of 16 of this year’s Australian Open, on her way to the finals. There, Rybakina was defeated by another first-time major winner, Belarussian Aryna Sabalenka.

Head back to the fall of 1970. The “Original Nine” who started women’s professional tennis came from just two countries: seven Americans, two Australians. Since then, champions and contenders from everywhere continue to emerge. Who knows where the next greats will come from?