Who Has Won Wimbledon the Most Times?

As one of the four hugely prestigious Grand Slam tournaments, Wimbledon is one of the biggest events in tennis. It is also one of the crown jewels of UK sport, being a major highlight of the summer. It is one of the biggest annual sporting events to be held in London and attracts a huge global audience. In short, Wimbledon is a big deal!

The 2024 tournament is some way off yet, so rather than look forward to that we will take a look back instead and look at who are the most successful players ever at Wimbledon. For the purposes of this article, we will look at both the men’s and women’s singles, but we will only include wins in tennis’s Open Era, which means from 1968 onwards.

Which Woman Has Won the Most Wimbledon Singles Titles?

Over the years there have been several legendary female tennis players who have made the Centre Court at SW19 their office. Perhaps surprisingly, only eight players have won multiple Wimbledon titles in the Open Era, but here we will focus on the four with five or more victories on the famous green grass.

Martina Navratilova, Nine Wins

Czech-American grass-court expert, Martina Navratilova, dominated women’s tennis over an extended period that saw her win 167 events, a record in the Open Era. She won all four of the majors at least twice but it was at Wimbledon where she was most at home, winning the singles tournament nine times and adding a further 11 wins in doubles and mixed doubles combined!

Her first Grand Slam came at Wimbledon in 1978 and she defended her crown the following year. She was knocked out at the semi-final stage in the following two Wimbledons but then began an incredible run where she won six in a row at SW19, perhaps even more amazingly making the final nine years in a row from 1982, winning seven of those.

That her career overlapped with those of first Chris Evert (three Wimbledon victories) and Steffi Graf (seven), makes her nine wins all the more remarkable. Her winning percentage in all Grand Slams was an amazing 86% but on the grass of Wimbledon it was 90%!

Steffi Graf, Seven Wins

As noted, German ace, Graf, won this tournament seven times, claiming her first win in 1988, finally ending Navratilova’s streak. She won again in 1989, beating her old adversary Navratilova in both finals, and then won a hat-trick of Wimbledons between 1991 and 1993 inclusive.

Graf, who won each of the Grand Slams four or more times, was a better all-court player than Navratilova, and in all won an amazing 22 singles Slams. In 1988 she won all four in a single season, making all four finals the following year and only missing out on the French. Those two campaigns were two of five where she won at least three of the majors, an incredible record.

Serena Williams, Seven Wins

Level with Graf is American star Serena Williams, who with one more Grand Slam than Graf, is the leading woman in the Open Era. Her powerful game was so suited to Wimbledon and her serve blew the opposition away. Her seven wins came in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

She made the final a further four times, with one of those losses coming to the fourth star on our list. She won six doubles titles at SW19 with that same person, as well as a mixed doubles as well (alongside Max Mirnyi).

Venus Williams, Five Wins

The player to partner Serena on all those doubles successes, and beat her in the final in 2008, was, of course, her sister. Venus, the second-best player in her family, won this tournament five times, claiming seven majors overall (two US Open titles complete her haul). Like her sister, Venus was powerful and enjoyed a similarly lengthy career, though not quite as long at the very top. Her victories at Wimbledon came in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Which Man Has Won the Most Wimbledon Singles Titles?

When it comes to the best men to have graced Wimbledon since 1968, there are again four players with five or more titles who stand apart from the rest. Variety being the spice of life, we’ll present these in reverse order!

Roger Federer, Eight Wins

Whilst Djokovic has won more Grand Slams than any man in history, when it comes to Open Era Wimbledon victories it is the Swiss maestro Federer who tops the pile. Federer’s metronomic serve was often unplayable, despite not being the fastest around, and his all-round grass-court game and elegant style made him a firm favourite of the Wimbledon patrons.

Federer won this tournament in five consecutive years from 2003 onwards. He added another title in 2009, then in 2012, before his last emotional triumph in 2017. He made a further four Wimbledon finals, being beaten by Nadal and Djokovic and, as with the Serb, the standard of his rivals makes his accomplishments even more impressive.

Pete Sampras, Seven Wins

Pistol Pete dominated this tournament in the 1990s, winning in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, and 1999 and then winning the first Wimbledon of the new millennium. Had he not “failed” in 1996, when he lost to eventual champ Richard Krajicek in the quarters, he would have won a scarcely believable eight titles in a row. In all, Sampras won 14 Slams, though the French Open eluded him, whilst his winning percentage at SW19 was a healthy 90%.

Novak Djokovic, Seven Wins

Ahead of the 2024 tournament, for which he is currently the favourite, Serb legend Djokovic is joint-second, also with seven Wimbledon titles. Can he move to joint-first or even, just maybe, take top spot all by himself? Time will tell, but nobody can take away his wins at SW19 in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. That he had to compete against the man currently at top spot on this list, plus Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray, for much of his career, makes his record even more amazing. Djokovic may not be everyone’s cup of tea – a nice English idiom for discussing the quintessentially English Wimbledon – but the stats show he is almost certainly the game’s GOAT.

Bjorn Borg, Five Wins

Like the rockstar-god tennis player he was, Borg’s star burnt bright and fast, the sexy Swede collecting all five of his Wimbledon titles in consecutive years between 1976 and 1980 inclusive. He was unbeatable in that period and all 11 of his Grand Slams were collected in a narrow window between 1974 and 1981.