'The men had people doing this for them, building their tour': Chris Evert claims Grand Slam success is not the marker of great players

Often in tennis, there is a huge obsession with Grand Slam titles and using that exclusive metric to measure the overall success and greatness of an individual within the sport. However, iconic women’s tennis player Chris Evert has spoken out against this, claiming that it simply isn’t accurate — especially in the women’s game due to complications when the WTA first began.

For players like Novak Djokovic, he has amassed more Grand Slam titles than any of his competitors, with legendary figures such as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer falling by the wayside in comparison. Whilst no one would claim that the aforementioned Nadal and Federer were poor in comparison to Djokovic, former women’s tour player Chris Evert has urged people to reconsider ranking these players based solely on their Grand Slam triumphs.

Novak Djokovic, just like women’s tennis great Margaret Court, won the majority of their Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open — the year’s opening Grand Slam event in Melbourne. Chris Evert has spoken about why this could never have been the case for her during her career, as she had to miss 12 editions of the event due to issues that arose while building the women’s tour.

Speaking to Tennis365, Evert outlined the challenges she encountered: “Winning Grand Slams was not a priority for us at that time".

"We were trying to create a tour that could possibly allow 200-300 women to have a tour that would allow them to earn a living".

"I missed 12 Australian Opens and three French Opens because our priority was playing the Virginia Slims Tour and trying to build that into a platform that could sustain women’s professional tennis. The men had people doing this for them, building their tour. We had to do that ourselves".

Evert would go on to explain the importance of Iconic figures such as Billie Jean King and others who helped make the game what it is today:

"It is to the credit of Billie Jean King and the women who led the way with her that they created a professional circuit that gave women a chance to earn a good living".

"There wasn’t any other professional women’s sports then, so what they did created a legacy that had an impact not just in tennis, but in so many sports to this day. Our sport paved the way, no doubt about that".

"In the early 1970s, when I was coming through in tennis, we got equal prize money with the men at the US Open for the first time. That was a big moment. Now we have it for all the Grand Slam tournaments and I don’t hear too many people questioning it".

"Maybe you could ask whether the men should play best of three sets rather than five, but I’m not sure. Tennis has been there for a long time and you don’t want to change too much".

Evert was not alone in her decision to miss the season’s opening Grand Slam event. Former American tennis legend Andre Agassi also spent much of the 1990s without playing in the tournament, as he preferred to spend time at home with his family during Christmas and New Year’s.

Speaking on a recent edition of Andy Roddick’s podcast, 'The Serve', Agassi said, “I didn’t play the Australian Open because I wanted to do something normal, and that’s called Christmas and New Year’s".

In today’s game, you would be hard-pressed to find a player who misses a Grand Slam event unless absolutely necessary. This explains a different mindset from the past regarding Grand Slam tournaments and their overall importance to a player’s success.