The Australian Open is the 1st Grand Slam of every tennis calendar. The tournament was played during the last part of the season in December till 1985. Many notable players would skip the tournament due to the yearlong fatigue and tiredness.
In 1986 the championship was not played due to switch in timing from December to January. Since then the Slam is being played in January and has become very competitive with hardly any player skipping it unless injured or for personal reasons. In this article we look at the 5 youngest female players to win the Australian Open in the Open Era. All these ladies won the championship in their teenage.
5. Steffi Graf
Graf won 22 slams in her 17 year long illustrious career. She was the Australian Open champion 4 times. Her 1st title at Melbourne Park came in 1988 when she was aged just 19 years and 223 days. Graf was seeded 1st in the tournament. She beat the 3rd seed Chris Evert of America in 2 straight sets to win her 1st Daphne Akhurst memorial trophy. It was the same year that Steffi would go on to win all 4 slams as well as the Olympics Gold medal in tennis.
More success would follow in the Australian Open as Steffi Graf won the title again in 1989, 1990 and 1994. The Australian Open was also among the venues where Steffi had some great contests against her archrival Monica Seles. The former World Number 1 participated in the Australian Open for the last time in 1999 in the quest of her 5th singles title at Melbourne Park. She however lost out in the quarter-finals against familiar foe Monica Seles.
4. Hana Mandlíková
The former World Number 3 from the Czech Republic won 4 Grand Slams in her singles career. Two of these came in the Australian Open in the years 1980 and 1987. The Czech left-hander who was seeded 3rd in the tournament in 1980 beat top seed and 22 times Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova in the semi-final. Mandlikova would then beat local favorite Wendy Turnbull in the final to take home her 1st Grand Slam. She was aged 18 years and 318 days that time.
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Hana Mandilkova’s other slam successes came at the French Open in 1981 and US Open of 1985. The Czech star also reached the final of Wimbledon two times in her career, in the years 1981 and 1986. However she finished runner up on both the occasions and thus could not complete the career Grand Slam.
3. Margaret Court
The most successful female Grand Slam champion as well as the most successful Australian Open champion of all time, Court won 11 singles trophies at Melbourne Park. The former World Number 1 won her 1st title in 1960 when she was aged just 17 years and 199 days. Seeded 7th in the tournament Court defeated fellow Australian Jan Lehane in 2 straight sets. This was Margaret Court’s first Grand Slam success in singles.
The Australian legend would then go on to win 23 more slams. Her count of 24 Slams still remains untouched by any male or female player. Court is also one of the few tennis players who have won all 4 majors in the same year, a rare feet known as the Calendar Grand Slam. She managed to do that in 1970.
2. Monica Seles
Seles was one of the most naturally gifted and mentally strong players to grace the game of tennis. She won 9 Grand Slams in her career despite being derailed by the life threatening attack in 1993 at Hamburg, when she was at the peak of her career. The Australian Open was the most successful slam of Monica’s career. She won 4 titles at Melbourne Park which included a hat-trick of successes from 1991 to 1993 before the Hamburg incident occurred. Her 4th title was won in the year 1996 in a great comeback after almost 3 years of absence from the game.
Monica won her first Australian Open in 1991 beating fellow Czech player Jana Novotná in 3 sets. The former World Number 1 showed great fighting spirit coming back from a set down and lifting the trophy. Monica then aged mere 17 years and 55 days was then the youngest Australian Open female champion before her record was broken 6 years later by Martina Hingis. The Yugoslav turned American is thus the 2nd youngest female champion of the Australian Open.
1. Martina Hingis
If there was ever a player to perfectly fit the term, ‘tennis prodigy’, it was this extremely talented Swiss icon that created a storm in the tennis world in the year 1997. Martina Hingis became the youngest ever Grand Slam winner male or female when she won the Australian Open 1997. She also is the youngest ever player to become World Number 1 in the singles category.
In the year 1997, Hingis then aged just 16 reached the final of all 4 slams and won 3 of them except on the red clay Roland Garros. Hingis would again go on to win the Australian Open again in 1998 and 1999, thus winning 3 back to back titles there. During her 1997 Australian Open triumph Martina Hingis was just 16 years and 117 days of age, making her the youngest ever female Australian Open champion.
Martina won 5 singles Grand Slams in her career but faced frequent injury issues and was thus forced to concentrate more on doubles, where also she had great success of winning 13 slams in doubles and 7 slams in mixed doubles category.