LINEAL SPORT CHAMPIONSHIP Tennis
CurrentHolder Timeline Leaderboard Past Holders Archive Methodology
Lineal Sport Championship / Tennis
Since 27 April 1968 · Open Era lineage

Women's Lineal Tennis Championship

An unofficial match-by-match lineal championship history.

Kazakhstan KAZ
Current Holder
Elena Rybakina
Won on 11 September 2026
def. Coco Gauff · US Open SF · 3–6, 6–4, 6–4
—
Days held
Since 11 Sep 2026
1
Defence
12 Sep · US Open F
def. Aryna Sabalenka
6–4, 5–7, 6–2
TBD
Next match
No verified next defence yet
At a glance
1,087
Title changes
270
Holders
3,381
Successful defences
4,467
Played title matches

Last 6 title changes

11 September 2026
US Open · SF
United StatesUSA
Coco Gauff
→
KazakhstanKAZ
Elena Rybakina
Rybakina def. Gauff3–6, 6–4, 6–4
23 August 2026
Cincinnati · F
United StatesUSA
Jessica Pegula
→
United StatesUSA
Coco Gauff
Gauff def. Pegula6–2, 6–4
22 August 2026
Cincinnati · SF
PolandPOL
Iga Świątek
→
United StatesUSA
Jessica Pegula
Pegula def. Świątek7–5, 4–6, 6–4
19 August 2026
Cincinnati · R16
FranceFRA
Diane Parry
→
PolandPOL
Iga Świątek
Świątek def. Parry6–3, 6–3
17 August 2026
Cincinnati · R32
FranceFRA
Loïs Boisson
→
FranceFRA
Diane Parry
Parry def. Boisson4–6, 6–4, 6–3
16 August 2026
Cincinnati · R64
SwitzerlandSUI
Belinda Bencic
→
FranceFRA
Loïs Boisson
Boisson def. Bencic6–3 · RET

The Historical timeline

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Title changes
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Title matches
Entering holder
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Leaving holder
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Transfers in year
Defence leaders
Busiest transfer event
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Special lineage case · 2022
Ashleigh Barty → Shelby Rogers
When Ashleigh Barty retired as the reigning holder, she never played another eligible official singles match. Under the retirement-succession rule, the title therefore passed the day after her retirement announcement to Shelby Rogers, the most recent player to have beaten Barty in eligible official singles. This counts as a lineage transfer, but not as a played title match.

Leaderboard

#
Holder
Days
By court surface

Surface performance

Hard
505 title changes · 1,405 defences
Clay
277 title changes · 870 defences
Grass
174 title changes · 494 defences
Carpet
128 title changes · 608 defences
Metric
Surface
#
Holder
Successful defences
270 holders

Explore a Holder

Search your favourite player and see the data.

Defences and transfers

Full archive

Date
Type
Holder
Match
How the lineage is built

Methodology

This page reconstructs an unofficial match-by-match women’s lineal tennis championship from the start of the Open Era. The championship does not follow tournament winners: it follows the holder. Every eligible official singles match played by the reigning holder can either extend the reign or transfer the title.

Scope

Starting pointVirginia Wade, 27 April 1968, at Bournemouth. The lineage proceeds chronologically from there, match by match.
Eligible competitionGrand Slams; WTA main-tour events and historical equivalents; Olympics; Federation Cup / Billie Jean King Cup; WTA Finals; recognised official top-level singles competition; and historical premier professional circuits or events.
ExcludedQualifying; lower ITF / Challenger / Futures-level competition; doubles, mixed doubles and juniors; unofficial exhibitions; standalone touring or one-night professional matches unless part of a formal recognised competition or league; World Team Tennis; and Laver Cup.

What counts

Title transferThe title changes whenever the reigning holder loses an eligible completed singles match. It does not wait for the tournament final.
Successful defenceAn eligible match actually played and officially won by the holder counts as one successful defence.
WalkoverA walkover before play begins is not a title match. There is no transfer and no defence.
Retirement after play startsThe official winner decides the title. If the holder loses by retirement after play has begun, the championship transfers.

Chronology and dates

Match dateThe actual match or completion date governs chronology. A tournament start date is never substituted for the match date.
Date precisionWhere an exact individual match day cannot be established, the record is labelled as reconstructed or tournament-order-only rather than assigning an invented exact date.
Same-day transfersBecause the lineage is match by match, more than one transfer can occur on the same calendar day. Zero-day reigns are therefore possible and are retained in the record.
OrderingWhen multiple title matches occur within an event, draw order, round chronology and dated match evidence are used to preserve the sequence of the lineage.

Special cases and audit

Retirement successionIf a reigning holder officially retires and never plays another eligible official singles match, the title passes the day after the retirement announcement to the most recent player who had beaten her in eligible official singles.
DormancyInjury, pregnancy, suspension, hiatus or simple inactivity does not strip the title.
SourcesMatch-level source references and date-status notes are retained in the research dataset. Exact dates are preferred; reconstructed chronology is explicitly labelled rather than presented as exact.
CountingTransfers and successful defences together make up played title matches. A succession caused by retirement is a lineage transfer but not a played match.
Country / tennis representation

Holder flags are identification metadata rather than a claim about legal nationality at the date of every match. The 270-holder lookup is based primarily on the Jeff Sackmann archive; later gaps were cross-checked against official WTA player profiles. The Sackmann country field is canonical player metadata and should not be read as a match-date nationality history. Where an official WTA profile records a later representation change, the holder-level display uses that latest verified representation. Historical state codes are retained rather than silently reassigned to modern countries; where no modern Unicode flag exists, the historical code itself is shown. Sackmann archive mirror · WTA player profiles.