Serena Williams is widely considered one of the best athletes of all time (Image: GETTY)
American tennis legend Serena Williams has held the top spot in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings numerous times during her stellar career, and she has enjoyed an astonishing amount of success in the sport. twenty three. This is the number of Grand Slam singles titles won by the former world No. 1 player, and the most by any athlete in the Open Era.
When she was three years old, Williams’ father, Richard, was teaching her to play tennis. Serena, along with her sister Venus, soon showed her talent for the sport and the two played tennis every day on Compton’s public courts.
When Serena was nine years old, the Williams family moved to Palm Beach, Florida. There, Serena and Venus both started playing against other young tennis players.
Fast forward a number of years and both Serena and Venus were at the height of their matches. The sibling duo would go on to win major slams and many more titles, but it would be Serena who would excel in this department.
In total, the Michigan native holds 39 Grand Slam titles – 23 in singles, 14 in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles. She is third in the all-time list and second in the Open Era for total major titles. She has also earned Olympic gold medals in Sydney (2000), Beijing (2008), and London (2012).
Serena and her sister Venus were the most feared in the women’s doubles circuit (Image: GETTY)
The 41-year-old has earned a total of £79 million ($95 million) in WTA Tour prize money, far more than any other female tennis player. Approximately, she is earning more than £6 Million Pounds ($8 Million) annually through her tennis career. She also has an estimated net worth of £187 million ($225 million).
With a career spanning more than two decades, Williams has had many rivalries on the court with many of the WTA’s top stars. During the early stages of her career, Serena constantly faced off against and won against sister Venus, Justine Henin, and Jennifer Capriati.
Williams won her first Grand Slam tournament as a 17-year-old at the 1999 US Open. From 2002 to 2003 – the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open – she earned the “Serena Slam” by clinching in all majors The four are in a row. The American ace did it again in 2014-15.
Serena and her sister’s early life struggles were brought to the cinema near the end of 2021. The movie, titled “King Richard,” focuses on the story of Williams told by their father, a former tennis coach.
Serena won her first major tournament when she was 17 years old at the 1999 US Open (Image: GETTY)
Once the movie was released, it got huge acclaim from the critics as well as the general audience. Will Smith, who portrayed their father, also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama.
2017 was a huge turning point in Serena’s life. The star will be taking a back seat from tennis because she married Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit. Before their marriage, they were blessed with a daughter named Alexis Olympia.
She returned to the tour at the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, where she reached the finals. The following year, she faced a surprise third round at the French Open 2019. Later, she reached the final at Wimbledon 2019 and US Open 2019. Unfortunately, she failed to win as well.
After losing the 2021 Australian Open, Williams was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon and the US Open. Then Serena became the latest sports star to tease her comeback after indicating she would end her legendary career on the court in 2022 to focus on her family.
Williams has played competitive tennis since competing in the 2022 US Open in September. The 41-year-old was given a heartfelt send-off after losing to Agla Tomljanovic in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament.
The comments seemed to backtrack on Williams’ announcement of her retirement earlier this year, when the athlete told Vogue she was “evolving away from tennis” after the US Open.
Williams wrote, “I’ve never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, meaning something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe it’s better.” The word to describe what I do is evolution.”
Although the star has not officially announced her retirement, her comments were widely interpreted and reported as a farewell and Williams received the honors befitting the retirement of an athlete considered the best in the world.
Williams has previously indicated that she will be quitting the sport in 2022 (Image: GETTY)
Marking a historic moment for Williams, she was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in January 2023. Serena’s sister Venus also follows the religion, while her daughter Olympia is also being raised with him.
Even in her retirement, or what she describes as her evolution from the sport, Williams remains an enigma. Nobody knows the real answer and the 23-time Grand Slam champion added to the puzzle with her latest comments in her first public appearance since her farewell ceremony at the US Open in October 2022.
She told the San Francisco Standard, “I’m not retired. The chances of me coming back are pretty high. You can come to my house and see I have a court.”
