Suzanne Lenglen

Coached by her father from age 11, Lenglen became the youngest major champion in history when she won the 1914 World Hard Court Championship at 15. World War I delayed her career four years, but when she returned she was untouchable, winning her 1919 Wimbledon debut in the second-longest final ever - the only close match she'd play. She reeled off 179 straight wins, claimed six Wimbledon singles titles including five consecutive, and swept singles, doubles, and mixed doubles at the first two open French Championships. Her only post-war loss came in a retirement against Molla Mallory, her lone amateur match in the United States; in 1926 she beat Helen Wills in the Match of the Century. After a misunderstanding at Wimbledon that same year, she walked away from amateur tennis and turned pro, headlining a U.S. tour that laid the groundwork for professional circuits until the Open Era. She died in 1938 at 39.