They have graced major fashion and news magazine covers such as Time and Vogue, have made Forbes’s prestigious lists, and have Major stadiums named after them. These are tennis’s cultural icons whose names come to mind when you think about tennis. Their appeal is universal.
Champions such as the late Arthur Ashe, Billie Jean King, and Martina Navratilova were bold enough to challenge the status quo to fight for social justice, earning their iconic status in the process. In the late 1990s, Venus and Serena Williams revolutionized women’s tennis with their power game. A few years later, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s rivalry kicked off, and has since become one of the greatest in tennis history.
Other players who have earned their cultural iconic status are Rod Laver (has a stadium named after him), Stan Smith (has a shoe named after him), John McEnroe (is a huge household name), and Maria Sharapova.
