A Time Magazine profile piece on Esther Vergeer in 2011 ran under the headline ‘Meet the World’s Most Dominant Athlete’. It was lavish praise – but not unmerited, given the distance that separated Vergeer from her rivals. She is one of the most decorated athletes of all time, not just in wheelchair tennis, but across sport in general.

Here, we take a look at some of the key statistics that make Vergeer arguably the greatest wheelchair tennis player of all time.

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8 – Vergeer won eight Paralympic medals, seven of which were gold. She won the women’s wheelchair singles gold medal at four straight Paralympic Games, from Sydney 2000 to London 2012; she won three women’s wheelchair doubles gold medals (at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and London 2012) and a silver medal in doubles at Beijing 2008.

13 – Vergeer was part of 13 title-winning teams at the World Team Cup, triumphing with the Netherlands women’s team in 1997-98, 2000-2009 and 2011.

13 – Vergeer was named as ITF World Champion for 13 consecutive years, from 2000 to 2012 – a record for any tennis player in any category. (Mike Bryan is second with 12 ITF World Champion awards in the men’s doubles category.)

18 – In the final 10 years of her career, Vergeer lost just 18 sets of tennis. She faced a match point against her on only one occasion in that time – against compatriot Korie Homan in the women’s gold medal match at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

21 – Vergeer won all 21 Grand Slam singles events she contested. She still holds the record for most Grand Slam wheelchair women’s singles titles.

44 – In addition to her 21 Grand Slam singles titles, Vergeer won 23 Grand Slam doubles titles. Her record of 44 Grand Slam wheelchair titles was equalled by Shingo Kunieda this year, who won his 44th major title in the men’s wheelchair singles at the Australian Open.

95 – Such was Vergeer’s dominance that, during the final 10 years of her career, she won 95 matches by a scoreline of 6-0 6-0.

136 – Vergeer won a total of 136 Tour-level doubles titles during her career – a feat yet to be matched by any other wheelchair tennis player.

169 – Vergeer won a total of 169 Tour-level singles titles during her career – another wheelchair tennis record which still stands.

470 – Vergeer ended her career on a winning streak of 470 matches. Her last defeat came against Australia’s Daniela di Toro in Sydney on 30 January 2003, after which she won every competitive singles match she contested. Only one professional athlete in sporting history is known to have a longer winning streak than Vergeer – Pakistani squash player Jahangir Khan, who won 555 consecutive matches between 1981 and 1986.

668 – Vergeer spent a total of 668 weeks as world No. 1. She first reached the top ranking on 6 April 1999, then held on to top spot without interruption from 2 October 2000 to 21 January 2013.

700 – Vergeer won a total of 700 matches in her career, compared to just 25 defeats.