Short Tennis Players – Male & Female

Compared to other professional sports, professional tennis has a substantially lower entrance threshold due to height. In truth, several of the shorter men’s tennis players have collected as many victories in their professional careers as their taller rivals.

The Shortest Male Tennis Players of All Time

Olivier Rochus – 1.65m

Olivier Rochus, the shortest tennis player ever, is a retired Belgian. He is the younger brother of former top-40 tennis player Christophe Rochus.

In his career, Rochus won two singles matches, and in 2004, he and fellow Belgian Xavier Malisse won the French Open doubles match. The 24th-best singles rating of his career is for him. He was the smallest player on the ATP World Tour, being 1.68 meters tall.

Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga – 1.75m

Former tennis world No. 1 Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga is one of the shortest ever pro tennis players. He was known by the monikers “El Chino” and “El zurdo de Vitacura,” and in March 1998, he became the first player from Latin America to occupy the top spot in the ATP singles rankings for six weeks. He was also in first place among juniors. Ríos is the smallest man to ever occupy the top spot in men’s tennis, standing at 1.75 m.

Since the format’s inception in 1990, Ríos is the only player to have won all three clay-court Masters Series competitions (Hamburg, Rome, and Monte Carlo). In 1998, he became only the third person in history to win both the Indian Wells and Miami Masters, completing the Sunshine Double. Ríos is the only guy to have held the top spot throughout the Open Era without ever triumphing in a Grand Slam singles competition in addition to those five Masters championships.

David Ferrer Ern – 1.75m

With the exception of a major, David Ferrer has won events at every level on the ATP Tour and is now ranked seventh among all male tennis players in terms of lifetime prize money earned. He has won three Davis Cups with Spain (not adjusting for inflation). Ferrer has now surpassed Brian Gottfried, who had held the record for 32 years, as the player with the most victories on the ATP Tour without having claimed a major.

Rod Laver 1.73m

Rod Laver has accumulated 72 singles titles in the Open era (198 in total) and 28 doubles titles.

He has won a total of 11 Grand Slams, with 5 of them being won in the Open era. The central court of the Australian Open tournament was named after him as a tribute to his success.

During a successful tennis era, David Ferrer earned more than $31 million thanks to his 27 victories. Given that tennis was far less lucrative in the 1980s and 1990s than it is today, this is huge.

The shortest Female tennis Players of All Time

Nuria Llagostera Vives – 1.56m

Nuria Llagostera Vives is the shortest pro female tennis player of All time. Nuria was born in the Balearic Island of Majorca, in Palma. She earned two singles and 16 doubles championships on the WTA Circuit throughout her career. She also took home a silver medal at the 2005 Mediterranean Games despite losing to fellow countrywoman Laura Pous Tió in the final.

At the 2009 WTA Tour Championships, Nuria and Mara José Martne Sánchez won the doubles title. They beat top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber in three sets after overcoming Serena and Venus Williams.

Rosemary Casals – 1.59m

Rosemary won 9 Grand Slams titles in doubles and 3 in mixed doubles. In addition, she ended her career with 90 titles, a career-high ranking of no.3 in the World in 1970, and $1.4 million in prize money, which is huge for her time.

She was a fierce female player in the 70s with a rich game and a poor background. Along with the great Billie Jean King and other top players, she won 11 Grand Slams in doubles.

At the end of her career, she had 11 singles titles and 112 doubles titles including 11 Grand Slams. Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport, and Monica Seles were just a few of the best players “The Little Assassin” defeated in some incredible matches.

Lauren Davis – 1.58m

Davis reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 as a junior.She made her debut on the ITF Junior Circuit in September 2008 at the age of 14, via wildcard at the 2008 US Open, losing to Ajla Tomljanović

Dominika Cibulkova – 1.61m

Dominica is a Slovakian tennis player who made her way to fame in the early 2010s. Even with her 1.61m size, she competed at a very high level, winning 8 singles titles including the WTA finals win in 2016.

Cibulkova also made the final in the Australian Open 2014 and claimed the World no. 4 place in 2017.

With all the struggles caused by injuries and her short size, which were holdbacks for bigger achievements, she managed to have a superb career accumulating more than $13 million in prize money.

Carla Suárez Navarro – 1.62m

Carla Suárez Navarro is a former professional tennis player from Spain. She was a former top 10 singles player who peaked at world No. 6 in singles on February 29, 2016, and at No. 11 in doubles on April 27, 2015. She has won two singles championships and three doubles wins on the WTA Tour.

Suárez Navarro declared her disease Hodgkin lymphoma in April 2021 and said she would start a farewell tour that would start at Roland-Garros and end with one final US Open participation. Her last singles and doubles matches occurred during Spain’s match against Slovakia.

Does height really matters in the game of Tennis

Height definitely counts. Taller players can often serve faster serves, more quickly and effectively than shorter players. Moreover, short players who are successful on tour typically accomplish it by moving and returning better than their taller competitors. According to popular thinking, height can be advantageous, but only to a certain extent. A range of 185 to 190 cm is ideal, but anything more is excessive. No player taller than 193 cm has ever surpassed Marat Safin in the ATP rankings.

Tennis is a game where athletes of various heights can participate on an even playing field. Height can, however, be a benefit and a drawback in any sport. Male and female players who are taller frequently find it easier to generate force behind their shots. They also have an edge over shorter opponents in terms of reach.

Taller players find it more difficult to move laterally and thus more prone to injuries. Because of this, shorter players frequently use tactics particularly to use their height to level the playing field.