Women's tennis: 5 oldest French Open winners in Open Era

#3 Margaret Court

Margaret Court

Margaret Court Smith is one of the few players to have won Roland Garros as a teenager, in her 20's and 30's - the other 3 being Chris Evert, Rod Laver, and Rafael Nadal.

The 1973 French Open was eventful in many ways. It was the first Grand Slam appearance of the legendary Martina Navratilova, who made the quarter-finals. It was also the first time that 7-time champion and arguably the greatest clay-court player among women, Chris Evert, was making an appearance in Paris. Defending champion Billie-Jean King did not compete.

Margaret Court was the top-seed. Court had just dropped one set going into the final. In the final, she faced Chris Evert and the match is remembered for being one of the most memorable Ladies' Singles Grand Slam finals of all-time.

After Evert won the first set in a tie-break, Court leveled the match with a second set tie-break win and the third set was won by Court. Only a service break in the decisive set separated the two greats. Court was 30 years, 321 days old at the time.