Serena Williams Biography

BIRTH: September 26, 1981, Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.

Serena Williams Biography : The greatest tennis champion

Serena Williams is the most famous American professional tennis player in the history of the game. Serena has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her career, more than any other tennis player during the open era.

Serena Williams was born as Serena Jameka Williams on September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. Serena started to take an interest in tennis at the age of three. She played her first tournament at the age of four and went on to win all but three tournaments in the next five years.

In 1991, Serena was ranked number one in the Under-10 category. By the age of fourteen, Serena had already turned professional. But the Women’s Tennis Association felt she was too young and thus barred her from competing in WTA events. So, she played her first match as a professional in 1995 at Quebec, Canada in a non WTA event.

In 1998, Williams made her professional debut in her first Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open. In 1999, she played the French Open & the U.S. Open with her sister Venus Williams. The sisters broke the record by winning the doubles. Moreover, Serena won the finals of the U.S. Open Grand Slam singles tournament. Serena became the second African-American woman ever to have accomplished this feat. Serena reached the world number four position in the second year of her professional career.

In 2000, Serena teamed up with her sister Venus once again and won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. The sisters also got their first Wimbledon title. In 2001, the Williams sisters won the doubles title at the Australian Open. The sisters were the first in history to win all four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles.

The year 2002 was the best year for Serena’s career. She won the French Open, the Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, all against her sister in the finals. Serena was the first African-American to end the season at the number one world ranking. Her accomplishments didn’t stop there. In 2003, she won the Australian Open, against her sister once again, and became the fifth female tennis player to win all four major titles simultaneously. This feat was dubbed as a “Serena Slam” by the media. With all the record-breaking matches, she started to experience burnout and her health began to suffer. In 2003, Serena underwent knee surgery and it took months for her to recover.

Serena made her comeback at the 2007 Australian Open. She defeated the famous tennis player Maria Sharapova and won her third Australian Open title. In 2008, Serena and her sister Venus teamed up to win the women’s doubles title at Wimbledon and their second gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. In 2009, Serena climbed back to the number one world rank for the second time in her career. She achieved her tenth Grand Slam title by winning the Australian Open that year.

Serena made history by winning the singles gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, becoming the second woman to win a career Golden Slam. She also won her fifteenth Grand Slam singles title the same year at the U.S. Open. She won the Rogers Cup, the China Cup and WTA championships. By 2016, Serena had been at the world number one spot for 157 consecutive weeks.

After losing several matches in 2016, Serena started 2017 on a promising note. She won the Australian Open against her sister Venus. It was the 23rd Grand Slam singles title of her career. Later she announced her pregnancy and revealed that she was eight-weeks pregnant during the game. She gave birth to a baby girl in September 2017. The same year she married her long-time fiancé and Reddit founder, Alexis Ohanian.

Apart from her tennis career, Serena also grew her brand power through films, television and fashion. She was a voice actor in a couple of television shows like The Simpsons and also appeared on the covers of famous magazines. In 2004, Serena launched her design label, Aneres. Serena was the first black female athlete to appear on Vogue’s cover in 2015. The Williams sisters also published a couple of books. Serena’s first book was called Venus & Serena: Serving from the Hip: 10 Rules for Living, Loving and Winning. In 2009, Serena released her autobiography called On the Line.