Top 10 dominant clay-court players of the Open Era
Clay might not inspire in the lay spectator the same sense of grandeur that the lush green lawns do; however, watching tennis on clay is as exhilarating an experience as it is on grass.While grass courts merit the players to possess a strong serve and, at least passable skills at the net, clay calls into service a completely different skill-set. The first word that pops into the head of any serious patron of tennis when the term ‘Clay-Court’ is mentioned is ‘Attrition’.Any professional tennis player who wishes to be successful on clay needs to have boundless patience and most important of all, endurance. He (or she) who endures will succeed on clay.With the clay-court season in full swing, let us take a look at those who have been most successful on this demanding surface. The players mentioned below needn’t all necessarily have been French Open Champions. The yardstick that has been used to tabulate the list is the number of clay-court titles that they have won which is mentioned in the brackets following the players’ name.
#10 Monica Seles (14)
At a time when it seemed like no terrestrial force had the potential to halt the Steffi Graf juggernaut, in came a teenager from Yugoslavia, who not only challenged Grafs domination but even succeeded in realigning the dynamics of womens tennis in the early 1990s.
Monica Seles was a mere 16 years old, when she clasped her hands around her maiden Grand Slam title: The French Open in 1990. It was the first of her three consecutive French Open crowns.
In the years 1990-93, Seles won eight Grand Slam titles, and she hadnt turned 20 yet.
Although, Seless style was highly unorthodox, it was never the less, effective and on clay, her athletic game cobbled with her ability to strike the ball hard made her nigh undefeatable. Graf, Navratilova, Sanchez Vicario, among others could do little but watch Seles tower over the French Open like a veritable colossus.
At the height of hew prowess, Seles became a victim of a Steffi Graf fanatic, Gunther Parche, who stabbed her in Hamburg in the year, 1993. Although Seles came back to add one more Grand Slam to her bag, she never became the redoubtable force that she had been in her early years.