Serena Williams records that may never be broken: Beating No. 1 and No. 2 at the same tournament eight times

Each day until the US Open, we'll highlight one statistic from Serena Williams' unparalleled career that will in all likelihood never be broken.

So far this week we’ve talked about how she’s the only woman in the Open Era to win three Grand Slam titles from match point down, and that she’s the only tennis player ever to win three of the four Grand Slams six (or more) times each.

Today, we have another one of Serena Williams’ incredible records:

Beating the reigning No. 1 and No. 2 at the same tournament eight times

Serena has spent an incredible 402 career weeks in the Top 2 of the WTA rankings—319 weeks at No. 1, 83 weeks at No. 2—but even when she’s not in one of the top two spots on the list, she’s been by far the biggest threat to them.

She’s defeated the world No. 1 and world No. 2 at the same tournament eight times in her career, the most of any woman in WTA rankings history:

• 1999 US Open (d. No. 2 Davenport in SFs and No. 1 Hingis in F)
• 2000 Los Angeles (d. No. 1 Hingis in SFs and No. 2 Davenport in F)
• 2002 Miami (d. No. 2 V.Williams in SFs and No. 1 Capriati in F)

• 2002 Roland Garros (d. No. 2 Capriati in SFs and No. 1 V.Williams in F)

• 2005 Australian Open (d. No. 2 Mauresmo in QFs and No. 1 Davenport in F)

• 2007 Miami (d. No. 2 Sharapova in 4th Rd and No. 1 Henin in F)

• 2012 Madrid (d. No. 2 Sharapova in QFs and No. 1 Azarenka in F)

• 2012 WTA Finals (d. No. 1 Azarenka in RR and No. 2 Sharapova in F)

The No. 1-2 sweep has happened 36 times since WTA rankings began in 1975. After Serena, the player who’s done it the most is Venus Williams, who’s done it four times—other players who've done it multiple times are Tracy Austin (three times) and Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin (twice each).

Evonne Goolagong, Hana Mandlikova, Gabriela Sabatini, Amelie Mauresmo, Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, Anastasia Myskina, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, Garbine Muguruza and Kiki Bertens each did it once.

Serena is also one of only three women ever to beat No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 at the same tournament—before beating No. 2 Venus and No. 1 Capriati in the semis and final of Miami in 2002, she defeated No. 3-ranked Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals.

The other two women to achieve the No. 1-2-3 sweep are Graf at Roland Garros in 1999 (No. 2 Lindsay Davenport in the quarters, No. 3 Seles in the semis and No. 1 Hingis in the final) and Venus at the WTA Finals in 2008 (No. 2 Dinara Safina and No. 3 Serena in the round robin, then No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in the semis).