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People ask me this all the time. Margaret, who was the greatest you ever saw? And, you know, for years I'd just give a polite answer.
Margaret Court shares her honest top 5 greatest tennis players, highlighting Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Billie Jean King, and Martina Navratilova.
Key Takeaways
- Greatness in tennis is not only about trophies but also about style, discipline, and presence on and off the court.
- Steffi Graf's athleticism and elegance set a standard that impressed Court the most.
- Serena Williams revolutionized power in women's tennis and pushed longstanding records.
- Rivalries like that with Billie Jean King deepen respect and elevate competitive spirit.
- Sustained hunger and longevity, exemplified by Martina Navratilova, are crucial for lasting greatness.
What the video covers
- Margaret Court reveals her personal list of the five greatest tennis players she has ever seen.
- She ranks Steffi Graf as the greatest for her complete athleticism, discipline, and elegant playing style.
- Serena Williams is second for her powerful serve, record-chasing spirit, and transformative impact on women's tennis.
- Billie Jean King is included for her competitive mind, volleying skills, and the intense rivalry she shared with Court.
- Martina Navratilova is recognized for her sustained dominance, hunger, and the passing of the torch between their eras.
- Court reflects on the differences between admiration from afar and respect earned through direct competition.
- She discusses the emotional complexity of legacy, recognition, and respect in the sport.
- The video emphasizes greatness as a combination of skill, mental strength, sportsmanship, and lasting influence.
- Court acknowledges personal disagreements with some players but maintains professional respect.
- The narrative blends personal anecdotes with historical tennis insights, offering a unique perspective.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Question of Greatest Player
- 00:57Steffi Graf: The Most Complete Athlete
- 01:53Graf's Discipline and Movement
- 02:44Watching Graf's Elegance and Greatness
- 03:49Serena Williams: Power and Serve
- 04:44Admiration and Complex Feelings About Serena
- 06:42Billie Jean King: Rivalry and Respect
- 07:36Memorable Wimbledon Final Against King
- 09:42Respect Despite Differences with King
- 10:35Martina Navratilova: Passing the Torch
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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But not today. I mean, I've watched this game for over 60 years as a player, as a mother, as a minister, and I've got my own list. Five names.
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Some of them will surprise you. Some won't. But this is my answer. Honest, no filter because nobody else is going to say it for me.
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If you ask me who I'd put at the very top, it's Steffi Graf. And I know, I know some people expect me to say Serena because of the record and everything, but no, for me it's Steffi. She
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was, you know, just the most complete athlete I think I've ever laid eyes on.
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Now, here's the thing. I never played her, not once. By the time she was coming up, I was already—well, I was long done. I was raising a family. I was building my ministry.
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So, my view of her is purely as someone watching from the outside, which is different, you know, from talking about someone I actually had to face across the net. But that's almost what made it so special. I could
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just watch. No nerves, no rivalry, nothing personal in it, just pure appreciation. And I mean, what she did in 1988, winning all four majors and the Olympic gold in the same year, nobody has done that before or since. Not me,
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not anyone. That's not just talent. That's a kind of discipline and hunger that you rarely see combined like that. What got me though wasn't just the winning. It was how she moved. That forehand, I mean she'd
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just glide into it. No wasted motion. Like her whole body understood the shot before her mind even caught up.
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You know, some players win ugly. Steffi won beautifully. There's a difference. And as an athlete, not just a tennis player, an athlete, I don't think I've seen anyone quite like her.
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The speed, the balance, the way she covered a court like it was half the size for everyone else.
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I remember watching her on television during some of those big finals and just thinking, this is what it's supposed to look like.
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Not forced, not manufactured, just natural greatness. And I loved that about her, honestly. I loved watching her because she made it look like art, not labor. People sometimes forget that greatness isn't only about how many trophies end up on a shelf. It's about
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how you carry yourself while you're doing it. And Steffi carried herself with this quiet elegance on and off the court from what I saw.
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So when people push me for one name, just one, at the top of my list, it's her. Always has been. She was my favorite to watch, full stop. Not because I have to choose someone, because I genuinely wanted to.
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Second on my list has to be Serena Williams. And honestly, that one's easy. Her serve alone.
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I mean, I don't think I've seen anything quite like it. The power, the placement, it's just a different level. You watch her toss the ball up and you already know before she even swings that the point is basically hers.
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Her record speaks for itself, you know. She chased my mark for years, got right up close to it, closer than anyone else ever has, and I respected that.
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I mean, truly, there's something about watching someone push at a record that stood for so long. It keeps you honest, keeps you connected to the game even when you're long retired.
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But, I'll say something honest here because that's what this is about. I've admired Serena as a player, genuinely.
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I don't think though that admiration has ever really gone the other way. And that's a strange feeling, you know, to respect someone's game so much and feel like it's just not returned.
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I remember watching her final match, that emotional send-off she got at the US Open. Everyone celebrating her and rightly so. She earned every bit of it. But, I'll admit there was a part of me that felt a
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little invisible in that moment. Like my name wasn't really part of the conversation even though the record she was chasing was mine.
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I don't say that with any bitterness though. I mean, I'm a minister now. I've learned to let go of needing recognition. That's not where my peace comes from anymore.
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But it's there, that feeling, and I won't pretend it isn't. What I will say, and I mean this, is that Serena changed what power looks like in the women's game completely. She brought something physical, something dominant that just wasn't
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there before her. You watch young players today and you can see her fingerprints all over how they move, how they hit, how they carry themselves onto the court like they already own it.
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So, yes, she's on my list and high on it, too. Not because I need her approval to say so, but because greatness is greatness, whether it's handed back to you or not.
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And hers is undeniable. Now, this next one, this is different because Billie Jean King, she's not someone I just watched. She's someone I had to actually go out there and beat over and over again for years.
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And I mean, that's a whole different kind of respect than admiring someone from a distance.
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I still remember, you know, early on when she was just this young unseeded girl, nobody really knew who she was yet, and she went out and beat me just like that. First big tournament we played, and I walked off
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that court thinking, "Who was that?" I mean, it shook me, honestly. You don't forget a moment like that.
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It sort of plants a seed of respect right away, even before you know someone's whole story.
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After that though, I figured her out mostly. I won a lot more than I lost against her over the years. But mostly is the important word there because Billie Jean never let you feel comfortable, never. Even when I was
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ahead in a match, there was always this sense that she was calculating something three shots ahead of you. That's what I really want people to understand about her game. It wasn't power, not really, not like some of the others on this list. It
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was her mind. She'd have young players beaten before they even walked onto the court, you know, just through reputation and presence alone. And her volleying, I mean, genuinely one of the best I've ever seen. So precise, so controlled.
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We played this one Wimbledon final. Long one, back and forth, back and forth. And I remember thinking afterward, that's as close as it gets—two players just refusing to give an inch. That match, it's still talked about today
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and rightly so. Now, I'll say this because I think it needs saying. Billie Jean and I haven't agreed on everything outside of tennis, not even close, honestly. We've had our differences, real ones, about things I
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believe deeply. But, and this is important, none of that changes what I saw on the court. I don't let personal disagreement
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erase professional respect. That's not who I am. She was a fighter, you know, in every sense of the word, on the court
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and off it. Whatever we disagree about, I've never once doubted her competitive fire or her tennis mind.
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Those were exceptional. Genuinely. So, when people ask why she's on my list, I mean, how could she not be? She's the rival who made me better.
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The one match I never took lightly, not once in all those years we played each other.
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That kind of history, it earns its place. No matter what else came after.
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Martina Navratilova, she's a fascinating one for me because our timing was almost a passing of the torch in a way. I was just stepping away from the game right as she was starting to really come into her own. So, I got
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to watch her rise from a very particular seat, not as a rival, but as someone who just walked off the stage watching.
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think. That's a bold way to play. You know, [music] it takes real conviction because if you hesitate at the net even once, you get burned. [music] What struck me most though was just how long she sustained it. Year after year,
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uh dominating, staying hungry, staying [music] at the top when it would have been so easy to ease off.
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That kind of sustained hunger, um it's rare. I don't think people [music] appreciate enough how hard it is to want it that badly [music] for that long. I'll be honest, too. Um Martina and I have never really seen eye
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to eye on [music] certain things, personal things, things I hold to pretty firmly because of my faith.
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That's no secret, and I won't pretend [music] otherwise. Um but, and I mean this, [music] when I talk about her tennis, I'm talking purely about what she did with a racket in her hand. That part, nobody can take away, and I wouldn't want to.
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[music] You know, watching her rush the net match after match, it reminded me a little of my own instincts when I played that same refusal to sit back and just [music] wait for something to happen.
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Make it happen instead. [music] That's the mentality I respect most in this sport, honestly, more than any trophy count. So, [music] yes, she's on this list, and she deserves to be. Not because we agree on everything. We clearly don't. But,
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because [music] greatness, real greatness on a tennis court, doesn't ask for your approval [music] off of it.
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Um Martina had that fire, undeniably, and [music] I watched it burn for a very long time.
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Now, [music] if Martina was fire at the net, Chris Evert um she was patience from the baseline, [music] complete opposite in almost every way.
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And that's exactly what made her so remarkable to watch. She wasn't chasing the ball forward. She was making you chase her rally after rally until you cracked first.
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I mean, that kind of consistency, uh it's almost a different sport entirely. No wasted emotion out there, none of the drama some players bring, just this steady, [music] relentless rhythm, shot after shot after shot. Like she genuinely believed she
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[music] could outlast anyone alive. And you know, more often than not uh she could.
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What always got me, though, wasn't just her game, it was her composure. Win or lose, she carried herself the exact [music] same way. Calm, measured.
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You'd never really know from her face whether she was up or down in a match, and uh that's its own kind of strength, honestly. Maybe harder to build [music] than any ground stroke. There's something I've never forgotten, too.
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Um Chris once spoke kindly about me publicly [music] about my training, my power for the era I played in. And I mean, that meant something to me more than people might realize.
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So much of what gets said about me these days is complicated, let's say. So when someone in this sport takes the time [music] to speak with real generosity without an agenda behind it, you remember that. You hold onto it. I think
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that's part of why she sits where she does on this list. Not just the tennis, though the tennis alone would earn it.
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It's that she represented [music] something increasingly rare in this game. Graciousness. Respect [music] given freely without needing anything back in return. We came from [music] different eras, mostly, our paths [music] only really crossing at the edges, but I
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watched enough of her career [music] to know exactly what I was seeing. A quiet kind of dominance.
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No shouting about it, [music] no need to prove anything beyond what the scoreboard already showed. So, [music] yes, Chris Evert belongs here. Not the loudest name on this list, maybe, but one of the steadiest [music] and one of
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the classiest from where I was standing. So, there it is, um, my five. [music] Steffi, Serena, Billie Jean, Martina, and Chris. Five very different people, five very different games, but each one taught me something about what greatness actually looks like, up
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close or from a distance. [music] I know some people expected a different list. I know, uh, some people probably expected [music] me to leave a name or two off it, given everything [music] that's been said about me over the
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years uh given where I stand on certain things, but that's not how I look at this game.
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[music] Never has been. What happens on a tennis court and what someone believes off of it, those are two separate conversations, you know, and I've I've always tried to to keep them that way, even when it wasn't easy,
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even when it wasn't popular. I I've spent a long time now, um, not being mentioned, not being invited, [music] watching other names get celebrated while mine quietly sits off to the side.
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And I won't pretend that doesn't sting sometimes. It does, honestly, um, more than I probably let on.
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But I made peace [music] with that a long time ago. My worth was never really about being applauded in a room.
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I found that [music] out, um, somewhere between the church and the tennis court, [music] if I'm being truthful with you.
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These days, most of my time isn't spent thinking about rankings or legacies at all. I'm teaching young players, um, you know, showing up, um, still after all these years. And honestly, that's where I feel closest to the game
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now, not in the trophies, not in the arguments about who deserves [music] what title, just a racket in a young player's hand, and [music] me trying to pass along whatever I still have to give.
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I tell them [music] the same things I've always believed. Discipline matters, commitment matters, [music] showing up on the days you don't feel like it, um, that matters most of all.
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Tennis taught me that long before faith [music] did. And honestly, I think the two ended up teaching me the same lesson [music] in different languages.
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So, if you ask me again next year who the greatest are, I might surprise you and give you the same five names.
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Or maybe not. Greatness, [music] real greatness, um, it doesn't sit still for long. I mean, someone's [music] always coming up behind it ready to make you rethink everything.
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But this list today, this is mine. Honest, unfiltered, exactly as I see it. nobody handed it to [music] me, and nobody's taking it away, either.
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And, you know, that's enough for me. It really is.
Topics:Margaret Courtgreatest tennis playersSteffi GrafSerena WilliamsBillie Jean KingMartina Navratilovatennis historywomen's tennistennis legendstennis rivalry
