U.S. Open Women’s Tennis Champions

Bill Sullivan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:25:31 +0000

When Kim Clijsters announced a return to competitive tennis after retiring to try motherhood, hardly anyone expected her to be more than an interesting sideshow at the 2009 United States Open championships. Instead, the 2005 winner came back to claim her title, outlasting Serena Williams.

Here’s a list of winners since 1968, the year in which the U.S. championships were opened to professionals:

2009 — Kim Clijsters

2008 — Serena Williams

2007 — Justine Henin

2006 — Maria Sharapova

2005 — Kim Clijsters

2004 — Svetlana Kuznetsova

2003 — Justine Henin-Hardenne

2002 — Serena Williams

2001 — Venus Williams

2000 — Venus Williams

1999 — Serena Williams

1998 — Lindsay Davenport

1997 — Martina Hingis

1996 — Steffi Graf

1995 — Steffi Graf

1994 — Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario

1993 — Steffi Graf

1992 — Monica Seles

1991 — Monica Seles

1990 — Gabriela Sabatini

1989 — Steffi Graf

1988 — Steffi Graf

1987 — Martina Navratilova

1986 — Martina Navratilova

1985 — Hana Mandlikova

1984 — Martina Navratilova

1983 — Martina Navratilova

1982 — Chris Evert Lloyd

1981 — Tracy Austin

1980 — Chris Evert Lloyd

1979 — Tracy Austin

1978 — Christine Marie Evert

1977 — Christine Marie Evert

1976 — Christine Marie Evert

1975 — Christine Marie Evert

1974 — Billie Jean King

1973 — Margaret Smith Court

1972 — Billie Jean King

1971 — Billie Jean King

1970 — Margaret Smith Court

1969 — Margaret Smith Court

1968 — Virginia Wade

Source: USOpen.org

U.S. Olympic Women’s Tennis Team

Emily Zipp — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:55:18 +0000

Three former gold medal winners and the world’s top doubles player will represent the United States in women’s tennis competition at the Beijing Olympics. The three singles players are familiar names to tennis fans: Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport. The fourth player, Liezel Huber, became a U.S. citizen in 2007 after representing her native South Africa in the 2000 games.

Serena Williams will make her second Olympic appearance having won gold in doubles in 2000 with her sister (pictured). Venus Williams and Davenport will make their third Olympic appearances and both have won gold. The sisters will compete as a doubles team, as will Davenport and Huber. The women’s coach is Zina Garrison.

The first woman to win an Olympic medal in any sport was a tennis player: Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain in 1900. The sport was first played in the Olympics in 1896, but was dropped after 1924 because of conflict over amateur vs professional competitors. It returned to the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Since then, the United States has won 15 medals in tennis, more than any other nation. They were shut out of the medals ceremonies in 2004.

A maximum of 172 players will compete in singles and doubles on 10 hard-surface courts in Beijing.

The members of the U.S. women’s team are:

Serena Williams (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) – Age: 26, singles and doubles

Venus Williams (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) – Age: 28, singles and doubles

Lindsay Davenport (Laguna Beach, Calif.) – Age: 32, singles and doubles

Liezel Huber (South Africa) – Age: 28, doubles

For more information on the U.S. women’s Olympic tennis team, go to their website. If you want to see all U.S. Olympic qualifiers in every sport for the Beijing games starting in August, start your search on this official U.S. Olympics page.

GetListy » Lindsay Davenport

U.S. Open Women’s Tennis Champions

U.S. Olympic Women’s Tennis Team