The 1988 WTA Tour was the
elite tour for professional women's
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
of the
Women's International Tennis Association (WITA) for the 1988 season. The 1988 WTA Tour included the four
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tournaments, the
WITA Tour Championships and the WTA Category 1-5 events.
ITF tournaments were not part of the WTA Tour, although they award points for the WTA World Ranking.
The tour was governed by the Women's International Professional Tennis Council (WIPTC), a cooperation between WITA, ITF and recognized tournaments.
Philip Morris sponsored the tour under its
Virginia Slims
Virginia Slims is an American brand of cigarettes owned by Altria. It is manufactured by Philip Morris USA (in the United States) and Philip Morris International (outside the United States).
Virginia Slims are narrower ( circumference) than st ...
brand.
Steffi Graf
Stefanie Maria Graf ( , ; born 14 June 1969) is a German former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 for a record 377 weeks and won 22 major singles titles, ...
became the first singles player in history to win the
Golden Slam
The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam p ...
by taking the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
,
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
,
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
and
US Open singles titles, along with the
Olympic gold medal
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
. Graf's defeat by
Pam Shriver
Pamela Howard Shriver (born July 4, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player and current tennis broadcaster and pundit. During the 1980s and 1990s, Shriver won 133 titles, including 21 singles titles, 111 women's doubles titles, an ...
in the semifinals of the
Virginia Slims Championships
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
deprived her of a
Super Slam.
[Collins, Bud. The Bud Collins History of Tennis. New Chapter Press; 3rd ed. edition (15 Jan. 2016). ]
Schedule
The table below shows the 1988 WTA Tour schedule.
;Key
December 1987
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Statistical Information
Titles won by player
These tables present the number of
singles
Singles are people not in a committed relationship.
Singles may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series
* ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe
* ''Singles'' ...
(S),
doubles (D), and
mixed doubles
Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...
(X) titles won by each player and each nation during the season, within all the tournament categories of the 1988 WTA Tour: the
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
tournaments, the Year-end championships and regular WTA tour events. The players/nations are sorted by:
# total number of titles (a doubles title won by two players representing the same nation counts as only one win for the nation);
# highest amount of highest category tournaments (for example, having a single Grand Slam gives preference over any kind of combination without a Grand Slam title);
# a singles > doubles > mixed doubles hierarchy;
# alphabetical order (by family names for players).
Titles won by nation
Rankings
Below are the 1988 WTA year-end rankings (December 19, 1988) in both singles and doubles competition:
See also
*
1988 Nabisco Grand Prix – men's circuit
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1988 Wta Tour
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
WTA Tour tourna ...
WTA Tour seasons