Chris Evert
One of the sport’s greatest teen prodigies, Chris Evert made a seamless transition from competing against junior players to taking on adults on the Virginia Slims Tour. Seeded fourth at the inaugural edition of the year-end championships, the 17-year-old dominated from start to finish, beating No. 1 Billie Jean King in the semifinals, then Kerry Melville in the last match. The victory was the 11th of Evert’s already-burgeoning career.
Tracy Austin
When Tracy Austin made her debut in 1979 at the tournament reserved for the best in the game, she would go on to reach the finals, where she lost to Martina Navratilova. When she returned to the championships, the second seed and reigning US Open champion was pushed to the brink in her opening round-robin match, but settled in from there to advance to the final. This time, the 17-year-old would turn the tables on Navratilova, beating her in three sets to claim her 14th singles title.
Monica Seles
There have been dominant streaks throughout the history of the game, and the run by Monica Seles could definitely be counted among them. After making her debut at the year-end event in 1989, where she reached the quarterfinals, the teenager would go on to firmly establish herself as the best of the best over the next three years. In 1990, she gutted out the first women’s five-set match in decades in the final against Gabriela Sabatini, then topped all-time great Martina Navratilova in ’91 and ’92, giving her three titles at the tournament by the time she was 19.