The Most Famous

TENNIS PLAYERS from United States

This page contains a list of the greatest American Tennis Players. The pantheon dataset contains 1,569 Tennis Players, 254 of which were born in United States. This makes United States the birth place of the most number of Tennis Players.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary American Tennis Players of all time. This list of famous American Tennis Players is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of American Tennis Players.

1. Billie Jean King (b. 1943)

With an HPI of 70.55, Billie Jean King is the most famous American Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 68 different languages on wikipedia.

Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. King is an advocate of gender equality and has long been a pioneer for equality and social justice. In 1973, at the age of 29, she famously won the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. King was also the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. She was instrumental in persuading cigarette brand Virginia Slims to sponsor women's tennis in the 1970s and went on to serve on the board of their parent company Philip Morris in the 2000s. King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987. The Fed Cup Award of Excellence was bestowed on her in 2010. In 1972, she was the joint winner, with John Wooden, of the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award and was one of the Time Persons of the Year in 1975. She has also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year lifetime achievement award. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1990, and in 2006, the USTA National Tennis Center in New York City was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. In 2018, she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, the Federation Cup was renamed the Billie Jean King Cup in her honor. In 2022, she was awarded the French Legion of Honour, and in 2024, she received a Congressional Gold Medal.

2. Andre Agassi (b. 1970)

With an HPI of 70.16, Andre Agassi is the 2nd most famous American Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 85 different languages.

Andre Kirk Agassi ( AG-ə-see; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in 1999. Agassi won 60 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including eight majors, completing the Career Grand Slam. He also won an Olympic gold medal, the 1990 ATP Tour World Championships, 17 Masters titles and was part of the winning United States Davis Cup teams in 1990, 1992 and 1995. Agassi is one of eight men in history to win the Career Grand Slam in singles, and one of three men to complete the career Golden Slam in singles. A teen phenom, Agassi contested multiple major finals before winning his first at the 1992 Wimbledon Championships. He won the 1994 US Open and 1995 Australian Open to reach the world No. 1 ranking for the first time, but was troubled by personal issues during the mid-to-late 1990s. Despite an Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Agassi's ranking declined to as low as No. 141 in 1997, prompting many to believe that his career among the elite was over. Following a rigorous training regimen, Agassi then enjoyed the most successful run of his career over the next several years. He returned to the world No. 1 position in 1999 after completing the Career Golden Slam at the French Open, and during this latter half of his career also claimed a US Open title and three Australian Open titles. Competing well into the 2000s, Agassi retired from the sport following the 2006 US Open. Agassi is regarded by many as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He was the first man to win all four singles majors across three different surfaces (hard, clay and grass), and remains the most recent American man to win the French Open (in 1999) and the Australian Open (in 2003). During his 20-plus year tour career, Agassi was known as "The Punisher" due to his excellent return of serve. Outside of tennis, he is the founder of the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, which has raised over $60 million for at-risk children in Southern Nevada. In 2001, the Foundation opened the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy in Las Vegas, a K–12 public charter school for at-risk children. He has been married to fellow tennis player Steffi Graf since 2001.

3. Jimmy Connors (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 69.63, Jimmy Connors is the 3rd most famous American Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 59 different languages.

James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 268 weeks (fifth-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. By virtue of his long and prolific career, Connors still holds three prominent Open Era men's singles records: 109 titles, 1,557 matches played, and 1,274 match wins. His titles include eight singles majors (an Open Era joint-record five US Opens, two Wimbledons, one Australian Open) and three year-end championships. In 1974, he became the second man in the Open Era to win three major titles in a calendar year, and was not permitted to participate in the fourth, the French Open. He retired in 1996 at the age of 43.

4. Helen Wills (1905 - 1998)

With an HPI of 68.46, Helen Wills is the 4th most famous American Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Helen Newington Wills (October 6, 1905 – January 1, 1998), also known by her married names Helen Wills Moody and Helen Wills Roark, was an American tennis player. She won 31 Grand Slam tournament titles (singles, doubles, and mixed doubles) during her career, including 19 singles titles. Wills was the first American woman athlete to become a global celebrity, making friends with royalty and film stars despite her preference for staying out of the limelight. She was admired for her graceful physique and for her fluid motion. She was part of a new tennis fashion, playing in knee-length pleated skirts rather than the longer ones of her predecessors, and was known for wearing her hallmark white visor. Unusually, she practiced against men to hone her craft, and she played a relentless predominantly baseline game, wearing down her female opponents with power and accuracy. In February 1926 she played a high-profile and widely publicized match against Suzanne Lenglen which was called the Match of the Century. Wills had a 180-match win streak from 1927 until 1933. In 1933, she beat the eighth-ranked US male player in an exhibition match. Her record of eight wins at Wimbledon was not surpassed until 1990 when Martina Navratilova won her ninth. She was said to be "arguably the most dominant tennis player of the 20th century", and has been called by some (including Jack Kramer, Harry Hopman, Mercer Beasley, Don Budge, and AP News) the greatest female player in history.

5. Stan Smith (b. 1946)

With an HPI of 67.97, Stan Smith is the 5th most famous American Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 36 different languages.

Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles champion (at the 1971 US Open and 1972 Wimbledon Championships), Smith also paired with Bob Lutz to create one of the most successful doubles teams of all-time. In 1970, Smith won the inaugural year-end championships title. In 1972, he was the year-end world No. 1 singles player. In 1973, he won his second and last year end championship title at the Dallas WCT Finals. In addition, he won four Grand Prix Championship Series titles. In his early years he improved his tennis game through lessons from Pancho Segura, the Pasadena Tennis Patrons, and the sponsorship of the Southern California Tennis Association headed by Perry T. Jones. Smith is a past President of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and an ITHF Life Trustee. Outside tennis circles, Smith is best known as the namesake of a line of tennis shoes made by Adidas.

6. Chris Evert (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 67.76, Chris Evert is the 6th most famous American Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 66 different languages.

Christine Marie Evert (born December 21, 1954) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful players of all time, she was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 260 weeks (fourth-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times: 1975-1977, 1980 and 1981. Evert won 157 singles titles, including 18 majors (among which a record seven French Open titles and a joint-record six US Open titles). Alongside Martina Navratilova, her greatest rival, Evert dominated women's tennis from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. In singles, Evert reached the semifinals or better in 52 of the 56 majors she played, including at 34 consecutive majors entered from the 1971 US Open through the 1983 French Open. She never lost in the first or second round of a major, and lost in the third round only twice. Evert holds the record of most consecutive years (13) of winning at least one major title, and contested an all-time record 34 major women's singles finals. Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 89.97% (1309–146) is the second highest in the Open Era, for men or women. On clay courts, Evert's career winning percentage in singles matches of 94.55% (382–22) remains a WTA Tour record. She also won three major doubles titles, two partnering with Navratilova and one with Olga Morozova. Evert served as president of the Women's Tennis Association for eleven years, 1975–76 and 1983–91. She was awarded the Philippe Chatrier award and inducted into the Hall of Fame. In later life, Evert was a coach and is now an analyst for ESPN, and has a line of tennis and active apparel.

7. Arthur Ashe (1943 - 1993)

With an HPI of 67.72, Arthur Ashe is the 7th most famous American Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 55 different languages.

Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles in singles and two in doubles. Ashe was the first Black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team, and the only Black man ever to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980. Ashe was ranked world No. 1 by Rex Bellamy, Bud Collins, Judith Elian, Lance Tingay, World Tennis and Tennis Magazine (U.S.) in 1975. That year, Ashe was awarded the 'Martini and Rossi' Award, voted for by a panel of journalists, and the ATP Player of the Year award. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at world No. 2 in May 1976. Ashe is believed to have acquired HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery in 1983. He publicly announced his illness in April 1992, and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 49 on February 6, 1993. On June 20, 1993, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by United States President Bill Clinton. The Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main court for the US Open and the largest tennis arena in the world, is named in his honor.

8. Venus Williams (b. 1980)

With an HPI of 65.80, Venus Williams is the 8th most famous American Tennis Player. Her biography has been translated into 83 different languages.

Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the WTA for 11 weeks, and as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for eight weeks. Williams has won 49 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including seven majors (five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open), as well as an Olympic gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She has also won 22 doubles titles, including 14 majors and three Olympic gold medals. Along with her younger sister, Serena, Venus Williams was coached by her parents Oracene Price and Richard Williams. Turning professional in 1994, she reached her first major final at the 1997 US Open. In 2000 and 2001, Williams claimed the Wimbledon and US Open titles, as well as Olympic singles gold at the Sydney Olympics. She first reached the singles world No. 1 ranking on 25 February 2002, becoming the first African American woman to do so in the Open era, and the second of all time after Althea Gibson. She reached four consecutive major finals between 2002 and 2003, but lost each time to Serena. She then suffered from injuries, winning just one major title between 2003 and 2006. Williams returned to form starting in 2007, when she won Wimbledon (a feat she repeated the following year). In 2010, she returned to the world No. 2 position in singles, but then suffered again from injuries. Starting in 2014, she gradually returned to form, culminating in two major final appearances at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2017. Along with her seven singles major titles, Williams has won 14 women's doubles major titles, all partnering Serena; the pair are unbeaten in major doubles finals. She became the world No. 1 in doubles for the first time on June 7, 2010, alongside Serena, after the pair completed a non-calendar-year Grand Slam at the French Open. The pair also won three Olympic gold medals in women's doubles, in 2000, 2008, and 2012, adding to Venus' singles gold in 2000 and her mixed doubles silver in 2016. Williams has also won two mixed doubles major titles, for a combined total of 23 major titles. The Williams sisters are credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour. Venus Williams was twice the season prize money leader (in 2001 and 2017), and ranks second behind Serena in all-time career prize money winnings, having earned over US$42 million as of March 2022.

9. Bill Tilden (1893 - 1953)

With an HPI of 65.61, Bill Tilden is the 9th most famous American Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 45 different languages.

William Tatem Tilden II (February 10, 1893 – June 5, 1953), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American tennis player. He was the world No. 1 amateur for six consecutive years, from 1920 to 1925, and was ranked as the world No. 1 professional by Ray Bowers in 1931 and 1932 and Ellsworth Vines in 1933. Tilden won 14 Major singles titles, including 10 Grand Slam events, one World Hard Court Championships and three professional majors. He was the first American man to win Wimbledon, first claiming the title in 1920. He also won a joint-record seven U.S. Championships titles (shared with Richard Sears and Bill Larned). Tilden dominated the world of international tennis in the first half of the 1920s, and during his 20-year amateur period from 1911 to 1930, won 138 of 192 tournaments he contested. He owns a number of all-time tennis achievements, including the career match-winning record and the career winning percentage at the U.S. Championships. At the 1929 U.S. National Championships, Tilden became the first player to reach ten finals at the same Grand Slam event. Tilden, who was frequently at odds with the rigid United States Lawn Tennis Association about his amateur status and income derived from newspaper articles, won his last Grand Slam event in 1930 at Wimbledon at the age of 37. He turned professional at the end of that year and toured with other professionals for the next 15 years.

10. Pete Sampras (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 65.26, Pete Sampras is the 10th most famous American Tennis Player. His biography has been translated into 75 different languages.

Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 286 weeks (third-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 six consecutive times. Sampras won 64 ATP Tour-level singles titles, including 14 men's singles majors, which was an all-time record at the time of his retirement: seven Wimbledon Championships, two Australian Opens and an Open Era joint-record five US Opens. He also won five Tour Finals, two Grand Slam Cups, eleven Masters events, and was part of the winning United States Davis Cup teams in 1992 and 1995. Sampras became the youngest male singles champion at the US Open in 1990 shortly after turning 19. He claimed his first Wimbledon title in 1993, and would win the title seven times in an eight-year span. Sampras remained the best player for the rest of the decade, finishing each year as No. 1 for a record six consecutive seasons. Following a decline in form at the turn of the century, Sampras claimed his 14th and last major at the 2002 US Open over long-time rival and compatriot Andre Agassi, and retired from the sport thereafter, aged 31. Sampras was a major practitioner of the serve-and-volley style of tennis. His precise and powerful serve, regarded as one of the best in the sport's history, earned him the nickname "Pistol Pete". In 2007, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

People

Pantheon has 254 people classified as American tennis players born between 1859 and 2004. Of these 254, 178 (70.08%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living American tennis players include Billie Jean King, Andre Agassi, and Jimmy Connors. The most famous deceased American tennis players include Helen Wills, Arthur Ashe, and Bill Tilden. As of April 2024, 254 new American tennis players have been added to Pantheon including Billie Jean King, Andre Agassi, and Jimmy Connors.