The 10 Best Belgian Tennis Players of All-Time
Belgium is far from being the most populous country in the world. Specifically, Worldometer says it is home to more than 11 million people but fewer than 12 million people. Despite this, Belgium is surprisingly good at tennis, as shown by the number of Belgian tennis players who have managed to claim high world rankings.
USA Today and other sources make it clear that doesn’t happen unless tennis players put on consistently good performances. As such, those numbers speak for themselves.
Here are 10 of the best Belgian tennis players to ever play:
10. Olivier Rochus
Olivier Rochus is one of two brothers who managed to enter the Top 40. However, he was the higher-ranked of the two, seeing as how he managed to make it to #24 whereas his brother only managed to make it to #38. Rochus never won a Grand Slam singles title, but he did win the French Open doubles title in 2004. Moreover, his cumulative successes enabled him to win more than $4.8 million in prize money.
9. Xavier Malisse
Xavier Malisse is undoubtedly one of the best male Belgian tennis players to emerge so far. After all, he peaked at #19, meaning he is one of just two male Belgian tennis players to make it into the Top 20. Like Rochus, he never won a Grand Slam singles title, but he did win the French Open doubles title in 2004. That makes sense because the two were partners in that particular competition. On the whole, Malisse was the more successful of the two, as shown by how he earned more than $5.7 million in prize money.
8. Sabine Appelmans
Sabine Appelmans was a professional tennis player from 1988 to 2001. Amusingly, she played left-handed even though she is right-handed. As the story goes, she wanted to stay with her left-handed friend at a tennis training session, so she claimed she was also a left-hander rather than admit she was a right-hander. Regardless, Appelmans never won a Grand Slam title. Even so, she peaked at #16 because she won seven singles titles and four doubles titles, thus resulting in more than $2 million in prize money.
7. Kirsten Flipkens
Kirsten Flipkens became a professional tennis player back in 2003. Since then, she has won one singles title and six doubles titles, thus enabling her to reach the #13 position. Flipkens did even better as a junior, as shown by her singles wins at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships and the 2003 U.S. Open on top of her doubles win at the 2002 U.S. Open. Unfortunately, she was never able to replicate that kind of success in her subsequent career, though she did very well for herself anyway. The more than $6 million in prize money speaks for itself.
6. Dominique Monami
Dominique Monami is another Belgian tennis player from an earlier era. Specifically, she turned pro in 1991 and continued until 2000. Over that time, she won four singles titles and four doubles titles. Moreover, she claimed a bronze medal in the doubles competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics. It is no wonder Monami managed to hit the #9 position in the world, which happened in October 1998. Earnings-wise, she won a bit more than $2 million in prize money because of her victories. Presumably, she also had more money flowing in from other sources because of her successes.
5. Elise Mertens
Elise Mertens’s singles career has been quite good. Simply put, not just anyone can reach the #12 position. With that said, Mertens’s doubles career has been even better because she reached the #1 position. Something possible because she has won three Grand Slam doubles titles, two of which were for competitions held in 2021. Only time can tell whether Mertens will climb even higher on the singles rankings. Certainly, it seems safe to say that her career prize money will continue to increase even though it is already more than $10.7 million.
4. Nelly Landry
Nelly Landry might be a controversial choice. That is because she was a tennis player back in the first half of the 20th century, which was a very different time for the sport for obvious reasons. Still, Landry deserves recognition because she did manage to reach the #7 position in 1946. She tends to be best remembered because she won the French Championships back in 1948, though there is some iffiness over whether the French Championships or the World Hard Court Championships is the true predecessor to the French Open.
3. David Goffin
As mentioned earlier, just two male Belgian tennis players have made it into the Top 20. David Goffin is the one who has reached the higher rank, seeing as how he topped out at #7 in November 2017. He has won six singles titles and one doubles title. Sadly, he has never won a Grand Slam title, though he has reached the quarterfinals on four separate occasions. Goffin remains active as a professional tennis player. Already, he has earned more than $16.4 million in prize money.
2. Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters emerged at around the same time as Justine Henin. Together, they made it clear that Belgium was a force to be reckoned with in women’s tennis. For instance, the WTA says she became the #1 in the world in August 2003, which was particularly notable because that was the first time that a Belgian tennis player had ever reached that position. On top of this, Clijsters also reached the #1 position for doubles a bit earlier in the same month and the same year. In total, she won six Grand Slam titles. Combined with her other victories, those resulted in more than $24.5 million in prize money.
1. Justine Henin
Justine Henin was the other woman who established Belgium as a force to be reckoned with in women’s tennis. She reached the #1 position a bit later than Clijsters in October 2003. In contrast, she peaked at #23 for doubles, meaning she never reached the same heights as Clijsters in this regard. Still, some would argue that Henin has the more impressive record, seeing as how she won seven Grand Slam singles titles. Naturally, she was richly rewarded for her successes, though she earned somewhat less prize money than Clijsters at more than $20.8 million.
You can also read:
- The 10 Best Japanese Tennis Players of All-Time
- The 10 Best Austrian Tennis Players of All-Time
- The 10 Best Belarus Tennis Players of All-Time
- The 10 Best Indian Tennis Players in History
- The 10 Best Greek Tennis Players of All-Time
