How do you rank these three: Jana Novotna, Mary Pierce, and Gabriela Sabatini?

Question

These 3 have very similar career results. Rank them with #1 at the top of your list, and #3 at the bottom. Here are their vital stats:

Jana played in 4 Slam finals, winning once. A gifted doubles player, Jana won an amazing 76 doubles titles and 24 singles titles. Jana's highest singles ranking was #2.

Sabatini played in 3 Slam finals, winning once over Steffi in the 1990 US Open final. Sabatini won 27 singles titles and 12 doubles in her career. Sabatini's highest singles ranking was #3.

Mary currently has 18 singles titles & 10 doubles on her resume. Mary has played in 3 Slam finals, winning twice. Mary's highest singles ranking was #3.

As you can see, these 3 are very, very close. Even though Mary has fewer titles than Sabatini and Jana, she does have one more singles Slam. So my #1 is Mary. Between Jana and Sabatini, Jana's doubles success is the tiebreaker. My rank is: #1 Mary, #2 Jana, #3 Sabatini.

Rank these 3, and please explain your rankings?.

Answer 1

Mary Pierce!

she does have two slam titles in singles and she also has 4 runner-up appearances in all the slams except wimby. she also owns two slam doubles titles.

Answer 2

Going strictly by grand slam success, with more emphasis on singles than doubles, Mary Pierce would have to be ranked first among these three because of her two grand slam titles.  In addition, she reached four other grand slam finals, including two in 2005 at the age of 30.  If you take in consideration their overall career titles, Novotna and Sabatini both have won more than Pierce.  But with the slams being worth so much more, Pierce comes out on top, even though head-to-head she is only 1-4 against Sabatini and 1-5 against Novotna.  What's more telling than her records against Sabatini and Novotna though are Pierce's records against Graf and Seles, in which she's 2-4 and 4-5 respectively.  As for Novotna and Sabatini, I agree that Novotna's success in doubles is the tie-breaker between them.