WTA shares rare pictures of Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Navratilova and other legendary players on the occasion of Women's History Month
Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Navratilova featured in the WTA's recent post commemorating players who elevated the sport with their contributions and spirit as part of their Women's History Month celebration.
The WTA, created in 1973, is also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The campaign of the celebration is titled WTA 50: Just Starting.
The association took to social media on Friday to share throwback pictures of former champions from their archives. Those champions include 22-time Grand Slam winner Steffi Graf, 18-time Grand Slam Winner Martina Navratilova, former World No. 1 Monica Seles and veteran Billie Jean King.
"Vibinโ since 1973 and weโre #๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ," the WTA captioned the post.
The nine-picture post also included a smiling Althea Gibson posing for the camera during a practice session. Gibson was the first African American to win a Grand Slam and a trailblazer for equal rights for women of color.
A young Martina Hingis can be seen in one of the pictures with her mother, while Tracy Austin can be seen posing outside the Los Angeles Tennis Club. The post also featured former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna, who passed away in 2018 after a long and hard-fought battle with ovarian cancer.
A look back at Steffi Graf's stellar career
Steffi Graf's name is etched as one of the greats in the history of the sport. She began her professional career in 1982 at the age of 13, and climbed up steadily.
By the mid-1980's Graf became the top challenger to Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, who were dominating the game at the time.
The German won her first title in 1986 and soon became a nearly unstoppable force. She has six French Open, seven Wimbledon, four Australian Open and five US Open singles titles to her name. Graf is the only player in history, male or female, to have won every Major tournament at least four times.
She also remains the only player in history to have won a Golden Slam - all four Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal - in the same calendar year. She accomplished the feat in 1988 at the young age of 19.
Graf held the World No. 1 spot for a total of 377 weeks, a record only recently surpassed by Novak Djokovic. She was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004. That same year, the Berliner Tennis-Arena in Germany was also renamed Steffi-Graf-Stadion in her honor.