Margaret Court based on Laurels....
But on Ability it would be Martina Navrilatova.
Margaret Court never even played a hard court major. How on earth could it be her based on laurels. She didnt even get to play as many hard court events on the regular tour as Laver. She is purely a guessing game really.
Navratilova was an excellent decoturf player but would not have been that good on rebound ace at all. I suspect it would have been her worst surface, even over clay, and she would have been lucky to win even 1 Australian Open if it were played on rebound ace, especialy when she managed to win only 3 on grass as it was, despite playing annually. Once it finally moved to rebound ace starting in 1988, at the 88 Australian Open she was crushed by a nearly retired 34 year old Evert, then in 89 she went out to Helena Sukova. Both women would be crushed by Graf in the finals. The very bouncy and sticky courts were absolutely awful for her attacking game, and her backhand was not suited to the courts at all either.
Evert was a great hard court player on all types of hard courts. Still was dominated by a prime Navratilova at the U.S Open, and even had major problems with Austin on hard courts.
Graf seems the obvious choice. Unlike most I dont think she is the overall GOAT but probably the hard court GOAT. Great records on both rebound ace and all speeds of decoturf. Her only blemishes are being dominated by Seles on rebound ace Navratilova at the U.S Open. Seles IMO is the rebound ace GOAT though, so no shame in losing to her, and if they played more than twice Graf probably wins at some point. Also due to timing of injuries she did virtually nothing at the Australian Open after the Seles stabbing anyway so it is not like she even benefited there like she did at Roland Garros or maybe even the U.S Open either. Graf I believe would crush Navratilova on rebound ace in their mutual primes, and Evert would give closer battles but Graf would usually win outside of maybe clay as she is a bad matchup for Chris. Her record vs Navratilova at the U.S Open I believe is a fluke of sorts, if they played 5 different times the record would probably be 3-2 either way, as they are very evently matched there I think.
Seles doesnt have a strong enough record at the U.S Open or on faster hard courts to be a valid choice. Who knows what might have been. Her being dominated by big hitters like Venus, Serena, Hingis and Davenport for years on hard courts, even past her prime, doesnt help her case either.
Serena would be the second best choice after Graf I believe, or perhaps third best choice after Graf and Evert. She is by far the best hard court player of a very deep era of great hard court players- Venus, Clijsters, Henin, Sharapova, Davenport, Hingis. Her U.S Open record could be a bit better than it is though.
My list in order:
1. Graf
2. Serena
3. Evert
4. Navratilova
5. Seles
-----big gap-------
After that Venus, Henin, Hingis, Clijsters, Davenport, Sharapova, maybe even Austin round out the top 10 somewhere, but nowhere near those top 5. Mandlikova was also pretty good, but only 1 hard court, major, didnt get to play the Australian on hard courts in her prime though.
