As Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and co dominate the top of the women's tennis game at present, Sports Mole chooses to highlight some of the stars of the past who can justifiably lay claim to the title of the GOAT.
In 10 or 20 years time, the current WTA Tour trailblazers may force their way into this conversation, but when it comes to debates over which female player truly is the most devastating with racquet in hand, luminaries from the 1900s and early 2000s immediately spring to mind.
A 10-strong list means that there is no space for plenty of celebrated names with several Grand Slam titles on their CV, and fans of Justine Henin, Virginia Wade and Martina Hingis will be disappointed should they choose to read on.
Here, Sports Mole counts down its subjective list of the 10 greatest female tennis players to ever grace the game.
10. Evonne Goolagong
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Achievements
Still a recognisable face in and around Melbourne, one of Australia's favourite daughters - Evonne Goolagong - won four of her seven Grand Slam singles titles in her homeland, in addition to one French Open crown and two Wimbledon triumphs.
Goolagong's success at SW19 in 1980 was particularly notable, as she became the first mother in 66 years to win the women's singles title at Wimbledon and did so by beating four top-10 players en route to the trophy.
Also a revered doubles player, Goolagong won six of her seven major finals with a partner of the same sex and was a part of three Fed Cup-winning Australia squads.
9. Venus Williams
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Achievements
Yet to officially call time on her illustrious tennis career, 44-year-old Venus Williams won the first of her seven Grand Slam singles honours all the way back in 2000, the same year she took home an Olympic gold medal in the women's singles.
Five of the American's seven major singles honours came on the lawns of Wimbledon, and when she topped the globe in early 2002, she became the first black player to become the women's world number one in the Open Era.
While she both won and lost to her beloved sister Serena Williams in many a mouthwatering final, Venus Williams teamed up with her sibling to win a plethora of significant doubles honours, just the 14 at Grand Slam tournaments.
8. Billie Jean King
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Achievements
Renowned for her trailblazing work off the court as well as her magnificent feats with the racquet in hand, the USA's Billie Jean King took home 12 Grand Slam singles trophies and was often irrepressible on the international scene with the USA.
Indeed, King won seven Fed Cup honours with her country before the tournament was renamed in her honour, although none of those victories may compare to her watershed win in the 'Battle of the Sexes'.
The now 81-year-old was 29 when she defeated former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs - then 55 - and she will forever be heralded as one of the pioneers for gender equality in sport.
7. Monica Seles
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Achievements
A baby-faced 16-year-old when she won her first-ever French Open title, Monica Seles - who remains the youngest-ever player to conquer Roland-Garros - was ostensibly en route to smash women's tennis records left, right and centre over the next two decades.
The Yugoslavia-born star had clinched a whopping eight Grand Slam honours during her teenage years, but her career was in jeopardy in 1993, when she was horifically stabbed by a crazed Steffi Graf fan and subsequently spent two years out of the sport.
However, Seles reached another four major singles finals after her long hiatus - winning one at the 1996 Australian Open - but there was always a sense of what could have been after her traumatic attack in Hamburg.
6. Chris Evert
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Achievements
One of the most consistent Grand Slam players to ever grace the court, Chris Evert hoisted a major trophy aloft on 18 occasions, spent 260 weeks at world number one and was seldom seen packing her bags before a Grand Slam semi.
Indeed, from 49 major tournaments between the 1971 US Open and 1987 Wimbledon Championships, Evert at least reached the semi-finals on an astonishing 48 occasions, the one outlier being a shock third-round exit at Wimbledon in 1983.
While serving and volleying was all the rage in Evert's era, the American instead flaunted her prowess from the baseline and relied on her tremendous fitness and accuracy to wear her foes down.
5. Steffi Graf
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Achievements
The fifth and most recent senior singles player to achieve a Grand Slam - winning all four majors in one year - Steffi Graf conquered the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 1988, becoming the only singles player to complete the Grand Slam set across three surfaces.
Those four crowns comprised a small part of the 22 that the German-born Graf clinched throughout the course of her career, where she was on top of the world for no fewer than 377 weeks, an all-time record that should not be broken anytime soon.
4. Helen Wills
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Achievements
Helen Wills was the unyielding dominant force of women's tennis during the early 20th century, taking home a whopping 19 Grand Slam singles titles and Olympic gold in 1924.
Wills's 96.9% win rate at Grand Slams is still the best of any women's player in the history of the sport, and her eight women's singles titles at Wimbledon are only bettered by one other female icon on this list.
Regarded as the first true American female sports celebrity, Wills won an astronomical 180 matches in a row from 1927 to 1933 and also took part in the much-publicised "Match of the Century" with Suzanne Lenglen in 1926, which she lost.
3. Martina Navratilova
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Achievements
The undisputed queen of Open Era women's tennis when it comes to overall titles won, Martina Navratilova took home an unrivalled 167 singles honours with the racquet in her hand, the most of any male or female player in the Open Era.
Eighteen of those honours were won in a Grand Slam setting, including a record nine at Wimbledon, while she also collected 41 doubles Grand Slam honours for a scarcely believable 59 major crowns in total.
Only the aforementioned Graf can boast to have spent more weeks as women's world number one than Navratilova (332), who also beat the reigning top-ranked player on 18 occasions, more than any other women's player past or present.
2. Serena Williams
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Achievements
Before recently "evolving away from tennis", Serena Williams - together with Venus Williams, unlucky not to be considered for this list - emerged triumphant in 23 Grand Slam finals; no woman in the Open Era has done so on more occasions.
If her blistering serve did not overwhelm her opponents, the ever-powerful Williams would resort to unstoppable winners from either her backhand or forehand side, and she spent over 300 weeks at the top of the WTA rankings.
To date, Williams is the only woman in the Open Era with 500 singles hard-court wins; her sister Venus, yet to retire but currently inactive, sits on 499.
1. Margaret Court
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Achievements
Take Navratilova's 167 singles titles and add 25 to it - that is the number of top-level honours that the legendary Margaret Court achieved, with 92 coming in the Open Era and 100 arriving beforehand.
The Australian sits atop the Grand Slam charts alongside Djokovic with 24 singles honours to her name from major tournaments, including 11 from her home tournament Down Under, where the third-largest Australian Open court is named after her.
Equally competent in the doubles game, Court also won 19 major women's doubles and 21 major mixed doubles championships and holds the WTA record for the most titles in a single year, taking home 21 in 1970.
> Click here to view our list of the top 10 greatest male players of all time
Ben Knapton
