Changed The Game: Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario set records for the Williams sisters to break

"Changed the Game" is a Yahoo Sports series dedicated to the women who are often overlooked, under-appreciated or simply deserve more flowers for their contributions to women's sports history.

It was a mark only eclipsed recently by none other than a Williams sister. Yet when we talk about tennis greats, one of Spain's most decorated Olympians rarely enters the chat.

Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario was a dominant force in both singles and doubles tennis from the late 1980s to early 2000s. She was the only tennis player to participate in five Olympic Games until Venus Williams tied the mark in 2016.

Sánchez-Vicario quietly built an impressive 17-year career in both singles and doubles that included 11 years of top-10 rankings. She lit up courts and opponents spanning Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and then-teenage American sensation Jennifer Capriati.

Steffi Graf upset by 17-year-old Sánchez-Vicario

Any first Grand Slam title is big for a player, but Sánchez-Vicario's 1989 French Open at the age of 17 was a massive breakthrough. It came after she reached the quarterfinals in 1987 as a 15-year-old. The Barcelona native and No. 7 seed took the title 7-6, 3-6, 7-5 from Graf, who had won five straight major championships coming into the tournament.

Graf served the final match with a 5-3 lead when Sánchez-Vicario took her opportunity, evened the score, broke Graf and won the final set. She became the first Spanish woman to win the tournament and the youngest French Open champion at the time until Seles won at 16 years old in 1990.

The three women were ferocious competitors in the 90s. They combined to win all but four of the 36 major championships from the 1988 Australian Open through the 1996 U.S. Open. Though Graf (20 wins) dominated the leaderboard, Sánchez-Vicario, who won three, was constantly in contention and finished runner-up eight times during the streak.

Rare achievement: No. 1 in singles, doubles

Sánchez-Vicario, a 5-foot-6 player who was celebrated for her baseline game, won a total of four Grand Slam singles titles, three of which were at Roland Garros ('89, '94, '98). She defeated Graf in the 1994 U.S. Open to become the first Spanish woman in history to win that title.

She competed in 12 major finals, six at the French Open, and is one of only 14 women in history to appear in singles finals of all four majors. Her all-time singles record stands at 759-295 (.720) and she reached the No. 1 spot in 1995 to add to a No. 1 ranking in women's doubles.

"I know that is is an achievement that very few players have achieved in their career," she said during her 2007 International Tennis Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "Throughout my career i have always enjoyed playing both singles and doubles."

Sánchez-Vicario became a star in both women's and mixed doubles. She won 102 titles in her career and 73 were in doubles play. She added six Grand Slam titles on the women's doubles side in 11 trips to the finals. She and primary doubles partner Jana Novotná won the U.S. Open (1994), Australian Open (1995) and Wimbledon (1995).

But she wasn't done. Add in four titles in mixed doubles: two with Australian Todd Woodbridge at the 1992 French Open and 1993 Australian Open, one with Jorge Lozano at 1990 French Open and one with American Jared Palmer at the 2000 U.S. Open.

Representing as one of Spain's best

Sánchez-Vicario will be a feature name around Spain this summer when the Tokyo Games begin. She is the country's most decorated tennis player and one of the country's most decorated Olympians, period. There are four others with four total medals, and canoeist David Cal holds five.

Her mark of five Olympic Games competed in were a record until Venus Williams tied the mark with an eye on breaking it this summer. And her four Olympic medals were a record with Graf until the Williams sisters came through. For a while it was Sánchez-Vicario, Seles and Graf who dominated the women's tennis circuit, leading the way for the new crop today.

Sánchez-Vicario first took the Olympic stage in 1988, when the sport returned to competition for the first time since 1924. Though she didn't medal then, she bounced back on her home ground in Barcelona to win bronze in the 1992 singles tournament and silver in doubles. In the 1996 Atlanta Games she won silver in singles, having lost to Lindsey Davenport in the final, and a bronze in women's doubles. She competed again in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, setting the mark for appearances and leaving a legacy only recently eclipsed.