On This Day, 2003: Justine Henin rises to No. 1 on the WTA rankings for the first time

On October 20th, 2003—exactly 20 years ago to this day—one of the all-time greats of women’s tennis officially became the greatest women’s player in the world, as Belgium's Justine Henin rose to No. 1 on the WTA rankings for the first time.

What Henin did to get to the top spot was exceptional. In the 12 months leading up to that day she went 78-10 and won nine WTA titles, including her first two Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros and the US Open. She actually reached the semifinals or better at 17 of the 19 tournaments she played (and still reached the quarterfinals at the other two events).

Her run to the indoor hard-court title in Zurich, Switzerland—which would be a WTA 500 event in today’s tournament structure—gave her the final push, as she replaced fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters at the top spot the following Monday.

“It is just an amazing feeling,” Henin said after defeating Jelena Dokic in the final in Zurich, 6-0, 6-4, to clinch her rise.

“Now I am No. 1 in the world it is just amazing because I did everything I could and it is a real achievement.”

A week later Clijsters would take No. 1 back for two more weeks, but Henin would return to the top spot again on November 10th, 2003 and hold it for 44 consecutive weeks until after the 2004 US Open, when Amelie Mauresmo took over.

Henin would eventually win seven Grand Slam titles in her career, four at Roland Garros (2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007), one Australian Open (2004) and two US Opens (2003 and 2007). She racked up a total of 117 career weeks at No. 1, one of just eight women to hit triple digits in WTA rankings history.

MOST WEEKS AT NO. 1 IN WTA RANKINGS HISTORY (since 1975):
377: Steffi Graf
332: Martina Navratilova
319: Serena Williams
260: Chris Evert
209: Martina Hingis
178: Monica Seles
121: Ashleigh Barty
117: Justine Henin
98: Lindsay Davenport
75: Iga Swiatek