Who is Serena Williams?
Table of Contents
Serena Williams is one of the usual renowned and established names in the world tennis player. An immensely skilled and proficient player, she throws on a power-packed play every time she is on the tennis court and leaves her opponents to spell defined. In her career fording two and a half decades, she first gained in the world no 1 ranking in 2002 and following regained the same on five more occasions.
In this career so far, she should win 39 Grand Slam titles: 23 in singles, 14 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. In 2002-03 and 2014—15, she did the rare feat of holding all the four Grand Slam titles simultaneously. What gives her the edge over different players of her rank is her fastest power-packed serve, followed by powerful groundstrokes from both her forehand and backhand swings and dynamic high playing style. She is also known for her mental toughness and her strength to strike back when the bits are down. The Williams sisters must change the face of women’s tennis with their power play and athleticism. By this dint of her clear achievements, Serena Williams is considered with the all-time great women tennis players.
Serena Williams Childhood and Early Life
Serena Williams did bear on September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price (now divorced). She was the youngest of five girls. She grew up in the dusty Los Angeles suburb of Compton, wherein her father was running a private security firm. She pulled up her love for the sport at the young age of three, practising on a field not far from the family’s home beside her sister Venus. Serena owned two-hour day works with her father. Her potential to become great in the game, could not be overlooked and soon thereafter, she started attending the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who polished her in-born skills and talent.
By 1991, she had scored 46-3 on this United States Tennis Association Junior tour and ranked first in this 10-and-under division. The family moved to Florida. However, her father pulled her and sister Venus out of the game, sensing his girls needed better instruction to grow successful professionals and the demanding schedule of the game may burn them out quickly.
Serena Williams Tennis Career
Serena went professional at the age of 14, against her parent’s wish. At that age, she entered her first professional tournament after some setbacks by the WTA as a result of age issues in a prior event. Serena was ousted out of her first professional tournament after winning just two games.
After staying out of action in 1996, Serena return to the court was well received as she defeated prominent top 10 players, which earned her the 99th spot at the end of 1997.
1998, saw Serena and her sister, Venus, begin their journey to the peak of tennis after they won their first professional titles in doubles. At the end of 1998, Serena had catapulted to the 29th spot in the singles rank. After losing in the third round of the Australian Open, a determined Serena strove hard to secure her first Professional singles titles, the Open Gaz de France. She also went on to win the IGA Super thrift classic with her sister, becoming the first sisters to win a professional tournament in the same week.
By 2000, after series of losses and defeats, even failing to defend her titles in Paris and Indiana wells, she made up for those losses by picking up a gold medal in doubles alongside her sister at the Sydney Olympics.
Early 2002, injuries cut short her playing times as she had to retire from the semi-final match at the Medibank International Sydney and later withdrew from the Australian Open, upon returning from injury, she grabbed the Scottsdale, Arizona and her first Master title in the process becoming one of three players to defeat the world’s top 3 ranked players at one tournament, beating No. 3, Martina Hingis, in the quarterfinals, No. 2 Venus her sister in the semi-finals, and No. 1 Capriati, in the final. Later at Wimbledon, she defeated her sister Venus to win a Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set for the first time in her career which resulted in her climbing to the top spot rank of World No. 1 becoming the third African-American to hold that rank. She won three Grand Slam titles that year.
Again she fell in the deep waters of injury and got sidelined out of action for eight months. She made a triumphant return in March 2004 and clinch the NASDAQ-100 Open title in Miami. She later went on to win the China Open.
During the 2005 Australian Open, the media made up discouraging suggestions stating Serena and her sister Venus were becoming a declining force in the game due to Venus’s early exit in the tournament but that didn’t steer off a determined Serena as she proves the media all wrong and went on to win her second Australian Open title defeating top seed, Davenport in the final. This win shot her to the No. 2 spots. The rest of the 2005 season filled with injuries, withdrawals and setbacks for Serena.
2006 was much also a tough year for Serena. She hurts from depression and stayed out of pro tennis for six months. She cut off and shut herself from the world for a period, seeing a therapist daily. But after meeting with a young girl who happens to be a die-hard fan of Serena she felt inspire and returned to the court. She returns to claim her third Australian Open and overall eight Grand Slam singles title despite not being seeded, overcoming mental, emotional and physical obstacles to do that. She dedicated the title to her late half-sister Yetunde. She won another three singles title at Bangalore and a fifth Miami title tying Steffi Graf for the most singles title won at this tournament. She picks up the gold medal in doubles alongside her sister at the Beijing Olympics.
She won her 10th Grand Slam singles title at the 2009 Australian Open in just 59 minutes a rare feat that returned her to the No. 1 spot and her becoming the all-time career prize money leader in women’s sport. She was named the best female athlete of that year.
In 2015 at the Miami Open, she recorded her 700th match win in her career by defeating Sabine Lisicki and became the eighth woman in the Open Era to do so. She completed her famous “Serena Slam”:e winning all four Grand Slams in a row at the 2015 Wimbledon Championship, winning her sixth Wimbledon and 21st Grand Slam singles title overall.
In the year 2016, she lost in the Australian Open and French Open finals. But she bounces back winning the Wimbledon singles tournament. She lost her No. 1 ranking.
2017 started on a promising note for Serena as she defeated her sister Venus Williams to win the Australian Open. It was the 23rd Grand Slam singles title of her career. She was eight weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open. On account of her pregnancy, she took a break from the court.
In early 2018, she pulled out from the opening Grand Slam tournament, stating she wasn’t ready yet to return to the court after the birth of her daughter in September. However, she returned to competition on February 11, one year after giving birth and made it to the finals of the 2018 US Open. She lost the final match to Japan’s Naomi Osaka. Osaka won the match 6-2 6-4.
Personal Life & Legacy
She was romantically involved with rapper Common until the two broke up in 2010.
In 2016, she announced her engagement to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
She gave birth to a girl on September 1, 2017. She named her Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr
On 17 November 2017, Serena Williams tied the knot with her long time fiance and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. The wedding festivities were held at New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center and was attended by a host of A-list celebrities including singer Beyonce, legendary Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, actress Eva Longoria and singer Ciara.
On 17 November 2017, Serena Williams tied the knot with her long time fiance and Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. The wedding festivities were held at New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center and was attended by a host of A-list celebrities including singer Beyonce, legendary Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, actress Eva Longoria and singer Ciara.
Awards & Achievements
She is the only tennis player to ever accomplish a golden career grand slam in singles and doubles.
She has won 39 Grand Slam titles: 23 in singles, 14 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. Her record of Grand Slam wins puts her third on the all-time list and second in the open era.
Grand Slam Single Wins: Australian Open (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2017), French Open (2002, 2013, 2015), Wimbledon (2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016), US Open (1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Grand Slam Doubles Wins: Australian Open (2001, 2003, 2009, 2010), French Open (1999, 2010), Wimbledon (2000, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2016), US Open (1999, 2009)
Along with sister Venus, she won a record 3 doubles gold in the Olympics as a team.
In 2013, she became the oldest no. 1 player at the age of 31 years and 4 months.
She is the only tennis player in history (man or woman) to have won singles titles at least six times in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments (Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open)
She holds the record of winning the most women’s singles matches at the Grand Slams.
In 2016, she earned $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements and thus became the highest-paid female athlete in the year.
Serena Williams Net Worth
Serena Williams is a world champion professional tennis player who has a net worth of 210 million dollars. She is considered by many to be one of the best female tennis players of all time. She is the highest-earning female player by a mile.
In a typical recent year, Serena has earned $30 – $40 million from on-court earnings and endorsements. For example, between June 2019 and June 2020, Serena earned $35 million, of which roughly $20 million came from endorsements.
