Top 10 African-American Tennis Players of All Time

#3 Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson

The first ever woman's African-American athlete to make it big in any sport for that matter was Althea Gibson. Althea Gibson was a potent force in Women's tennis during the 1960s. In an era when racism and prejudice were commonplace in sports and in practically every other field, Gibson scaled unprecedented heights and is an inspiration to many youngsters.

Zina Garrison, Sloane Stephens, Venus Williams and Serena Williams have all spoken about the kind of positive impact Gibson's success had on their own careers.

Gibson was a five-time Grand Slam Singles champion, winning Wimbledon and the US Open twice each and the French Open once. She narrowly missed out on winning the Australian Open in 1957 where she finished runner-up. A win there would have enabled her to complete a Career Slam of Majors - making her only the 4th woman at the time to do so.