“I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.”
Serena Williams
The French Open is an interesting tournament with a lot of history. Aside from being the only Grand Slam tournament played on clay, with the other three being played on hard courts and grass, it's also been fairly good at promoting women's tennis.
The tournament was initially the French Championship and only open to members of French tennis clubs or French nationals, which means that the list of champions naturally has a French and amateur skew since there were periods of domination by individual tennis players during the amateur era.
To account for this, we have two top 10 lists for you, one detailing the champions from the early days of the tournament (Amateur Era) and the more modern heroes from the Open Era when the French championship became the French Open.
The Top 10 Women Singles Champions During the Amateur Era of the French Open (French Championship)
The French Open has a long and fascinating history that includes two very distinct eras, which can make truly understanding who the champions were quite complicated.
Here, we have the champions from the amateur era, a time when the competition was quite different to how it is today.
Simonne Mathieu
Simonne Mathieu's two French Championship victories (1938, 1939) put her in tenth place on our list.
She was a prolific doubles player as well, with six French Open women's doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles.
🎾 Simonne Mathieu
The third show-court at Roland-Garros is named after her.
Margaret Scriven-Vivian
Margaret Scriven was a British tennis player who won the French Championship in 1933 and 1934.
🎾 Margaret Croft Scriven-Vivian
While the men's singles title was first won by a British player (who only won it once), Scriven was the first non-French woman to win the women's singles event.
Marguerite Broquedis
Marguerite Broquedis won the women's singles championship twice in 1913 and 1914.
🎾 Marguerite Marie Broquedis-Billout-Bordes
Due to the First World War, she'd technically hold onto the latter title for several years until Suzanne Lenglen won the 1920 edition of the tournament.
Margaret Court
The Australian tennis player Margaret Court not only had a name for tennis, but she also had an incredible talent for it.
🎾 Margaret Court
She won two French Championships during the Amateur Era, making her the sixth most successful player, but she also won the event 3 times in the Open Era.
This means that Court is in the top 10 for both Eras and is 4th overall All-time as the only player to have won the championship in both.
Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling
Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling was a German-Danish player whose three French Championship victories against Simonne Mathieu put her in 5th during the Amateur Era.
She also won the mixed doubles title at the 1933 edition of Wimbledon.
Helen Wills
Helen Wills not only won the French Open (the French Championship at the time) four times in 1928, 1929, 1930, and 1932, but she also won Wimbledon an astonishing eight times and the US Open seven times!
🎾 Helen Newington Wills
She also won gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics representing the USA in both the singles and doubles events.
Jeanne Matthey
The French tennis player Jeanne Matthey won four titles in a row at the French Championship in both the singles and doubles events between 1909 and 1912. In 1909, she also won the mixed doubles.
🎾 Jeanne-Marie Matthey-Jonais
Sadly, her tennis career was ended by wounds sustained in World War I, where she served as a Red Cross nurse. She also spent time in German concentration camps during the Second World War. Her illustrious tennis career was simply just one chapter in an incredible life.
Kate Gillou
Kate Gillou also won four French Championships in 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1908. She was aged just 16 when she reached the finals in 1903 but ultimately lost to Adine Masson, who we'll get to in a moment.
🎾 Catherine Marie Blanche Gillou
Kate Gillou's 1904 victory was against Adine Masson, possibly as payback for the previous year's defeat.
Adine Masson
Adine Masson won five French Championships. However, there should be perhaps an asterisk next to two of them.
She won in 1897, 1902, and 1903, but her two titles in 1898 and 1899 were “won” due to an absence of competitors so you could argue that these titles are quite hollow.
With three other victories, however, she was certainly a champion and as the only competitor, is technically the winner, but we feel for Marguerite Broquedis who didn't get a chance to defend her championship for four years but wasn't awarded four more championships since the tournament never took place.
Suzanne Lenglen
Last but certainly not least, we have Suzanne Lenglen. This French tennis player is the most successful of the Amateur Era with six titles.
Her first title came when the tournament resumed after the First World War in 1920 and she won five more between then and 1926, with the 1924 edition being won by Julie Vlasto.
🎾 Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen
She also won Wimbledon six times around the same period, the women's singles Gold Medal at the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games, and had an incredible 97.9% win record in singles tennis.
The “Court A” at Roland Garros is named after her and features a statue of her.
The Top 10 Women Singles Champions During the Open Era of the French Open
Now that you've seen the trailblazers of women's tennis from the earlier years of the French Open (or French Championship), it's time to look at the greats who've dominated the tournament since it became an “open”. If you've watched any women's tennis in the Open Era (from 1968 onwards), you'll have likely heard of quite a few of these greats!
The modern French Open doesn't really need an introduction, but we have one if you'd like to find out more.
Maria Sharapova
The Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova won each of the Grand Slam tournaments once.
🎾 Maria Yuryevna Sharapova
With her Roland-Garros victory in 2012 being the last major tournament she still needed to win, she finally achieved her Career Grand Slam.
Martina Navratilova
The Czech-American tennis player Martina Navratilova won the French Open twice, though it was at Wimbledon where she had most success with no fewer than nine titles!
🎾 Martina Navrátilová
She also won the Australian Open three times and the US Open four times, giving her the Career Grand Slam. At one point, she was technically the reigning singles champion in all four majors, but since they weren't across the calendar year, it wasn't a Calendar Grand Slam.
In doubles, however, she achieved a Calendar Grand Slam in 1984.
Iga Świątek
Born in 2001, the Polish tennis player Iga Świątek is at the height of her career, ranked world No. 1 in women's singles (at the time of writing; March 2024), and the reigning champion of the French Open.
🎾 Iga Natalia Świątek
In addition to her 3 Roland-Garros titles, she's also won the US Open once.
Serena Williams
By Serena Williams' standards, winning the French Open just three times pales in comparison to her countless other victories in the other majors.
She's won the Australian Open seven times, Wimbledon seven times, and the US Open six times, but because the French Open is so different, she has won it far fewer times.
🎾 Serena Jameka Williams
Complete with her 2012 Olympic gold medal, she's completed the Career Golden Slam (the four majors and an Olympic gold medal) both in singles and doubles tennis!
Monica Seles
Winning three French Opens in a row between 1990 and 1992, Monica Seles represented Yugoslavia until she became a US citizen in 1994 and represented the USA for the rest of her career.
🎾 Monica Seles
Most of her career victories came during her teenage years while representing Yugoslavia and when she won her first French Open in 1990 aged just 16, she was the youngest to have ever done it.
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
The Spanish player Arantxa Sánchez Vicario won the French Open three times (1989, 1994, and 1998) as well as the US Open. She reached the finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon twice each.
🎾 Arantxa-Sánchez-Vicario
She was also a successful doubles and mixed doubles player, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open doubles and the mixed doubles at the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.
Margaret Court
We've already explained the story of Margaret Court, but just know that she's the fourth most successful women's singles champion at the French Open!
Justine Henin
The Belgian tennis player Justine Henin won the French Open no less than four times between 2003 and 2007 and also won the Australian Open once and the US Open twice.
🎾 Justine Henin
Unfortunately, her two Wimbledon finals results ended in defeat so she was never able to complete a Career Grand Slam (win each of the majors at least once during her career).
Steffi Graf
The second most successful woman at the French Open with six titles, the German tennis player Steffi Graff also completed the coveted Golden Slam of winning every major and the Olympic Gold Medal in 1988!
🎾 Stefanie Maria Graf
The last person to even achieve the Grand Slam of winning all majors in a single year was Martina Hingis in 1998 and Graf was the player before that.
Chris Evert
The most prolific player at Roland Garros was Chris Evert, the American tennis player who won 7 titles, more than any female in the Amateur or the Open Era.
In the Open Era, only Rafael Nadal has won more French Open singles titles and the Frenchman Max Decugis won eight during the Amateur Era.
🎾 Christine Marie Evert
Alongside her seven French Open titles, she also boasts two Australian Open titles, three Wimbledon titles, and six US Open titles!
Become a Tennis Champion with Superprof
If you want to follow in the footsteps of any of these great women, consider learning how to play tennis or improving your game with a private tennis tutor.
Simply search on the Superprof website for "tennis" and you can start browsing and comparing the profiles of all the experienced tennis coaches offering lessons.
Thanks to the free lessons that many of the coaches offer, you can try working with a few different potential coaches before deciding which one is right for you. After all, if you know anything about tennis, many of the greats change their coaching staff!
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