WITH no live tennis on currently due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Draft Central will take a look back at some of the best players of past and present and rank them based on a specific set of guidelines. In our next Top 10 countdown, we look at the Top 10 WTA Players to never have won a Grand Slam title, and up to fourth in the world is Australia’s greatest doubles players who fell short of a singles major.

#4 Wendy Turnbull (728 matches – 65.7% winning record, 13 career titles, #3 career-high ranking)

In a career that spanned from 1970-1989, Turnbull was a well-known player that was competing against some of the best tennis has ever seen, in the golden age of competition. In the space of four years from 1977-1980, Turnbull made three Grand Slam finals, but it was more the fact each of those finals was at a different major. She did not play as many Grand Slams as some others, and in the case of the French Open, just the four, but it did not stop her almost claiming a title. With 13 career titles – some might say 11 as two came before she officially turned professional – and a career-high third in the world ranking, Turnbull certainly earned her place on this list.

Looking back on history, Turnbull will be remembered for her doubles more so than her singles, and rightfully so. She was a legend when it came to her doubles play with an absolutely ridiculous 55 career titles in women’s doubles and another five in mixed doubles. Even when she retired from the WTA Tour she went on to play in the Seniors and won another nine and four in women’s and mixed doubles respectively, bringing her complete titles across tennis to 86.

Throw in the fact her work with the Australian Fed Cup team as a player to a coach/captain spanned 16 years from 1977-1992 – and the two latter Olympics in 1988 and 1992 as a player and coach respectively – Turnbull has given back to the sport just as much as she received.

Let’s rewind it back to 1978. By this stage a 25-year-old Turnbull had won just the career four titles to go with six women’s doubles titles. The year was going to be the one where, particularly on the doubles circuit, Turnbull went from good to great as she would win six doubles titles including the 1978 Wimbledon title with compatriot, Kerry Melville Reid. They would take out the title against Mima Jausovec and Virginia Ruzici, having already made a massive six finals coming into the Grand Slam, winning three of them.

The three they lost all came against legends, Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. That would be the case at the US Open where they would go down in the final. Turnbull reached the semis before losing to world number two, Chris Evert in straight sets – a fate she suffered 12 months earlier having reached the final after successfully knocking off top three players Virginia Wade and Navratilova in the lead-up to the final this time.

By the end of 1979, Turnbull would add another 14 doubles titles to fo with her two singles titles, as she teamed up predominantly with Dutchwoman Betty Stove, winning the French Open against Wade and Francoise Durr in three tight sets. It would be a busy tournament for her as she reached the final in singles but was dismantled once again by Evert. Turnbull would finally overcome a second doubles loss to the King-Navratilova combination with a win against them in the US Open final later in 1979.

She would only win one more doubles Grand Slam title though – the 1982 US Open final as she and Rosie Casals would los a further four Grand Slam finals, and Turnbull would make and lose a further five on top of that, all of which came at the hands of the best doubles combination that ever took to the court on the WTA Tour – Navratilova and Pam Shriver.

Ironically, the last one would be with Evert, the player who denied her singles titles, in 1988. It would be a cruel twist of fate that the Australian Open – played late in 1980 – would be the last singles finals as she would defeat both Shriver and Navratilova on her way to the final before falling to fellow Australian, Hana Mandlikova. She would team up with Mandlikova in the mid-80s for two of those doubles losses against the super team.

Turnbull ended her career in 1989 as a legend, known predominantly for her doubles play, but one cannot forget how good she was solo and how she came agonisingly close to multiple Grand Slam titles.

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Top 10 WTA Players without a Grand Slam title:

#10 Manuela Maleeva (Bulgaria/Switzerland)
#9 Zina Garrison (USA)
#8 Jelena Jankovic (Serbia)
#7 Elena Dementieva (Russia)
#6 Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland)
#5 Mary Joe Fernandez (United States)
#4 Wendy Turnbull (Australia)