Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009.[2] She is the only female player to have won over $35 million in prize money.[3] Her 29 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 14 in singles, 13 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman ever to do so. She was also the first woman, along with older sister Venus Williams, to hold all four Grand Slam doubles titles simultaneously since Martina Hingis did so in 1998. Her 14 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list.[4] Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women's singl! es titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each).[4] Among active players, male or female, she holds the most Major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.[citation needed] Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles.[5] She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete.[6] Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches . They have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles together. She is the first player, male or female, to win 5 Australian Open singles titles during the open era. She is the cur! rent singles and doubles champion of Wimbledon. In 2012, after! winning the Wimbledon singles title, former world no. 1 John McEnroe described Williams as the greatest female player that's ever played the game.[citation needed] Contents 1 Early life 2 Playing style 3 Professional career 3.1 1995–98: Professional debut 3.2 1999–2001: Becoming a top-10 player 3.3 2002–03: The "Serena Slam" 3.4 2004–06: Injuries and inconsistent results 3.5 2007–08: Return to the top 10 3.6 2009: Back at world no. 1 3.7 2010 3.8 2011: Comeback after medical complications 3.9 2012 3.10 Grand Slam Performance Timeline 3.11 Grand Slam Finals 3.11.1 Singles: 18 (14 titles, 4 runner-ups) 3.11.2 Women's doubles: 13 finals (13 titles) 3.11.3 Mixed doubles: 4 finals (2 titles, 2 runner-ups) 3.12 Rivalry with Venus Williams 3.13 Controversies 3.13.1 2004 US Open 3.13.2 2009 US Open 3.13.3 2011 US Open 4 Off-court activities 4.1 Fashion 4.2 Entertainment 4.3 Miami Dolphins venture 4.4 Charity work 4.5 Writing 4.6 Security 5 Records and achievements 6 Awar! ds 7 Recognition 8 See also 9 References 10 External links [edit] Early life Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is of African American heritage and is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (1972–2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and full sister Venus.[1] When the children were young, the family moved to the city of Compton in Los Angeles county, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of five.[7] Her father home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus[8] and to this day, Serena Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.[1] Williams' family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach[9] when she was nine so that she could 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 Williams' father but respected that "he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls".[10]! Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tourna! ments when Williams 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.[11] At that time, Williams had a 46–3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among under 10 players in Florida.[12] In 1995, when Serena was in the ninth grade, 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, Williams responded: "Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just tried a different road, and it worked for us."[12] [edit] 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),[13] return of serve, and forceful groundstrokes from both her forehand and backhand swings. Williams' forehand is considered to be among the most powerful shots in the women's game as is her double-handed backhand. Williams strikes her backhand groundstroke using an open stance, and uses the same open stance for her forehand. Williams's aggressive play, a "high risk" style, is balanced in part by her serve, which combines great power and placement with very high consistency.[14] Her serve has been hit as hard as 128 mph (206.5 km/h), the second-fastest all-time among female players (Venus recorded the fastest with 129 mph).[citation needed] Serena also possesses a very solid volley and powerful overhead which is very useful for her net game. Although many think of Williams as only an offensive player, she also plays a strong defensive game.[15] [edit] Professional career [edit] 1995–98: Professional de! but Williams's first professional event was in September 1995, at the a! ge of 13, at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City. She lost in the first round of qualifying to world no. 149 Annie Miller in less than an hour of play and earned US$240 in prize money. Williams did not play a tournament in 1996. The following year, she lost in the qualifying rounds of three tournaments, before winning her first main-draw match in November at the Ameritech Cup Chicago. Ranked world no. 304, she upset world no. 7 Mary Pierce and world no. 4 Monica Seles, 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.[1] She ultimately lost in the semifinals to world no. 5 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 Sánchez Vicario in the semifinals. Will! iams made her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open, where she defeated sixth-seeded Irina Spîrlea in the first round, before losing to sister Venus in the second round in the sisters' first professional match.[16] 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 Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, and her second match against Venus at the Italian Open in Rome. She failed to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam tournament the remainder of the year, losing in the fourth round of the French Open to Sánchez Vicario, and the third round of both Wimbledon and the US Open, to Virginia Ruano Pascual and Spîrlea, respectively. 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 Slam tournaments. Williams won ! her first professional title in doubles in Oklahoma City with Venus, be! coming the third pair of sisters to win a WTA title.[1] The Williams sisters won two more doubles titles together during the year. Serena finished the year ranked world no. 20 in singles. [edit] 1999–2001: Becoming a top-10 player Williams lost in the third round of the 1999 Australian Open to Sandrine Testud. The following month, she won her first professional singles title, when she defeated Australian Open runner-up Amélie Mauresmo, 6–2, 3–6, 7–6, in the final of the Open Gaz de France in Paris. With Venus also winning the IGA Superthrift Classic in Oklahoma City that day, the pair became the first sisters to win professional tournaments in the same week.[17] A month later, Serena won her first Tier I singles title at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California by defeating world no. 7 Steffi Graf, 6–3, 3–6, 7–5, in the final. At the following tournament, the Tier I Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, Williams defeated world no. 1 Mar! tina Hingis in the semifinals, before Venus ended her 16-match winning streak in the first all-sister singles final in WTA history.[1] On April 5, 1999, Serena made her top-10 debut at world no. 9. Williams played three tournaments during the 1999 European spring clay court season. She lost in the quarterfinals of the Tier I Italian Open in Rome to World No. 1 Hingis and in the quarterfinals of the Tier I German Open in Berlin to World No. 7 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. Serena and Venus won the women's doubles title at the French Open, but Serena was upset by Mary Joe Fernandez in the third round of the singles competition. She then missed Wimbledon because of injury. When she returned to the tour, Williams won a Fed Cup singles match, before playing two tournaments during the 1999 North American summer hard-court season. She won the JPMorgan Chase
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