Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player and current World Number 1. She has been ranked World Number 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on five separate occasions. She regained this ranking for the fifth time in her career on the 2 November 2009. She is the reigning champion in both singles and women's doubles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and in doubles at the US Open. In total, she has won 23 Grand Slam titles: 11 in singles, ten in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. In addition, she has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles. She also has won more Grand Slam titles than any other active female player and has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. In 2005, Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 17th-best player in 40 years.
Williams reached the top ten on the WTA world rankings for the first time in 1999 when she won several tournaments, including her first Grand Slam victory at the US Open at the age of 17. Between 2002 and 2003, Williams won five of the six Grand Slam events she entered, becoming the fifth woman in history to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously. She became the World Number 1 for the first time in July 2002.
Williams' domination of the sport came to an abrupt end in mid-2003 when she had surgery to repair a partial tear in a knee tendon. Upon her return to the sport in 2004, her results were noticeably less consistent than previously. In early 2005, she won her first Grand Slam title in 18 months at the Australian Open, but a string of injuries then limited her to competing in just 13 events in the two years that followed, winning none of them. Her standing in the world rankings suffered as a result, the nadir being World Number 140 in July 2006, leading to widespread speculation that she had passed her peak. Williams, however, eventually won another Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2007, despite being ranked World Number 81 at the time. Williams returned to the top ten later that year and has since competed in every Grand Slam event. She became the World Number 1 for the first time in five years in September 2008.
Williams is the younger sister of fellow former World Number 1 professional female tennis player Venus Williams. The sisters have played each other in 23 professional matches dating back to 1998, with Serena winning 13 matches played between them as of October 2009. Their meeting in the final of the 2001 US Open was the first Grand Slam final contested by two sisters in the open era. As of July 2009, they have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six of those. Between the 2002 French Open and the 2003 Australian Open, the sisters met in all four Grand Slam finals, the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair regularly team to play doubles, proving highly successful, having won 10 Grand Slam titles together.
Early life
She was born in Saginaw, Michigan to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. Williams is of African American heritage and is one of five sisters: Lyndrea, Yetunde (died September 14, 2003), Isha, and Venus. Oracene raised the children as Jehovah's Witnesses. When the children were young, the family moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of four. Richard home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus. To this end, Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.
The Williams family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach when Serena was nine, to attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who would provide additional coaching. Macci spotted the exceptional talents of the sisters. He did not always agree with Richard Williams but he respected that "he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls". Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Serena was 10, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another motivation was racial, as he had allegedly heard parents of white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments. At that time, Serena had a 46–3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among under 10 players in Florida. In 1995, Richard pulled his daughters out of Macci's academy, and from then on took over all coaching at their home. When asked in 2000 whether having followed the normal path of playing regularly on the junior circuit would have been beneficial, Serena responded: "Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just tried a different road, and it worked for us."
Playing style
Williams is primarily a baseline player. Her game is built around taking immediate control of rallies with a powerful and consistent serve (considered by some to be the best in the women's game), return of serve, and forceful groundstrokes from both her forehand and backhand swings. Her serve is technically very sound and has been hit as hard as 128 mph (203 kph), second fastest all-time among female players.
Williams' solid volleys—especially her drive volleys and powerful overheads give her advantages at the net. She produces good drop volleys, a shot that not many players use.
Although Williams' forehand is among the most powerful shots in the women's game, her backhand is considered to be one of, if not the best, on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. Williams can hit a winning backhand shot, from any position on the court, down the line or cross court, even when on the defensive or otherwise under pressure. Williams strikes her backhand groundstroke using an open stance, and uses the same open stance for her forehand.
Williams' aggressive style of play results in a relatively high number of unforced errors. This 'high risk' style is balanced in part by her serve, which combines great power and placement with very high consistency.
Although many think of Williams as only an offensive player, she also plays a strong defensive game.
Professional career
1995–98: Professional debut
Williams started playing professional tennis in September 1995. Her first professional event was the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, where she was defeated in less than an hour of play and earned only US$240 in prize money.
Williams did not play any tournaments in 1996. In 1997, she played at several tournaments but failed to win a main-draw match until October at the Ameritech Cup Chicago. Ranked World No. 304, she upset both former World No. 1 Monica Seles and Mary Pierce, recording her first career wins over Top 10 players and becoming the lowest-ranked player in the open era to defeat two Top 10 opponents in one tournament. She ultimately lost in the semifinals to Lindsay Davenport. She finished 1997 ranked World No. 99.
Williams began 1998 at the Medibank International Sydney. As a qualifier, ranked World No. 96, she defeated World No. 3 Davenport in the quarterfinals, before losing to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in the semifinals. Williams made her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open, where she defeated sixth seed Irina Spirlea in the first round before losing to sister Venus in the second round, in the sisters' first professional match.
Williams reached six other quarterfinals during the year but lost all of them, including her first match against World No. 1 Martina Hingis at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami and her second match against Venus at the Italian Open in Rome. She failed to make a major impact at any of the season's Grand Slam tournaments, losing in the fourth round of the French Open to Sanchez-Vicario and the third round of both Wimbledon and the US Open, to Virginia Ruano Pascual and Spirlea. She did, however, win the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open with Max Mirnyi, completing the Williams family's sweep of the 1998 mixed doubles Grand Slams. Williams won her first professional title in doubles in Oklahoma City with Venus, becoming the third pair of sisters to win such a WTA title. The Williams sisters went on to win two further doubles titles together during the season. Serena finished the season ranked World No. 20 in singles.
1999–2001: Early success
Williams lost in the third round of the 1999 Australian Open to Sandrine Testud. However, she rebounded in February when she defeated Australian Open runner-up Amélie Mauresmo in the final of the Open Gaz de France in Paris to win her first professional singles title. With Venus also winning a tournament on that day, the pair became the first sisters to win professional tournaments in the same week. A month later, Serena won the prestigious Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California, her first Tier I title, having defeated World No. 2 Lindsay Davenport and World No. 8 Mary Pierce in early rounds, before defeating 22-times Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf in the final, after coming back from a break down in the deciding set. At the following tournament, the Lipton Championships in Miami, Williams defeated World No. 1 Martina Hingis for the first time in the semifinals, before losing to Venus in the first all-sister singles final in WTA history. In April, Serena entered the top ten on the rankings for the first time.
Williams lost in the third round of the French Open to Mary Joe Fernandez, although she did team up with Venus to win the doubles title at the event, their first Grand Slam doubles title with each other. Serena missed Wimbledon because of injury, but she started the
Bio - Serena Williams
Serena Williams embodies style, power, beauty and ... The show which had cameras follow Serena and Venus on and off the tennis courts ... savvy and has founded and created her own clothing ...
Serena Williams Poses Naked For ESPN | Tennis | Peacefmonline.com
Professional tennis player Serena Williams takes her clothes off, striking nude pose for ESPN The Magazine's first-ever "Body Issue". Her shot for the publication sees her covering ...
Serena Williams reclaims world No 1 spot as line-judge rant ...
Serena Williams does not always mind her Ps and Qs on a tennis court but she knows how to strike the ball as the ... The latest sports clothing at NikeStore
Serena Williams, tennis quotes
Serena Williams Quotes ... can't design [clothing] and win Slams. So that ... I didn't grow up playing tennis at the country club." -Serena, who grew up ...
Serena Williams Talks Fashion, Fitness and Tennis With StyleBakeryTeen ...
Serena Williams is as famous for her passion for fashion as she ... all the time because when I'm at home, I'm in a tennis skirt. It's funny, I'm always in some type of tennis clothes ...
Serena Williams line judge absent from WTA Tour Championships ...
The latest sports clothing at NikeStore ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/williamssisters/6324138/Serena-Williams-line-judge-absent-from-WTA ...
Serena Williams - Midwest Sports Supply
Serena Williams - Midwest Sports Tennis Supply - Serena Williams ... Apparel Junior Tennis Apparel Sale Apparel Team Uniforms Hats & Visors Clothing ...
Serena Williams on Tennis, Her Temper and Sibling Rivalry | Lifescript ...
With her hard-hitting intensity, tennis star Serena Williams often makes opponents tremble. ... Next: Serena Williams' clothing line...
FIRST LOOK: Serena Williams Plays Tennis on Water - Rafael Nadal ...
Robert Pattinson: A Fan Took Her Clothes Off for Me; POLL: What's Johnny ... "This was a once in a lifetime chance to play tennis on water," says Serena Williams, the defending Sony ...
Serena Williams - Tennis Game Profile
Overview of Serena Williams and her tennis, including playing style, greatest strengths, and areas ... Clothing and Shoes; History; Pro Tours and Players; Injuries and Conditioning