Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is a professional
women's tennis player, who is a former World No. 1 of the Women's
Tennis Association (WTA). She is the younger sister of another
female tennis champion, Venus Williams. She currently resides at
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States.
Early life
Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan. When she and her four
sisters were young, their parents, Richard and Oracene (also called
Brandy), took them to the poor and sometimes violent Los Angeles
suburb of Compton. Her father dreamed of making at least one of his
daughters a tennis superstar, hoping that involvement in sports would
give them a way out of that neighborhood.
When Serena was four and a half, she won her first tournament, and
she entered 49 tournaments before the age of 10, winning 46 of them.
At one point, she replaced sister Venus as the number one ranked tennis
player aged 12 or under in California.
1991-1997
In 1991, Richard Williams, saying that he hoped to prevent his daughters
from facing racism, stopped sending them to national junior tennis
tournaments, and Serena attended a tennis school run by professional
player Rick Macci instead. Macci had already helped the careers of
Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce, among others. Soon Richard, who
had struck a deal on behalf of his daughters with a major clothing
company, was able to move the rest of the Williams family to West Palm
Beach, to be near Serena and Venus.
Serena became a professional in September 1995 at the age of 14. Because of her age, she had to participate in non-WTA events at first. Her first professional event was the Bell Challenge in Quebec, and she was ousted in less than an hour of play.
By 1997, ranked number 304 in the world, she upset both Monica Seles
and Mary Pierce at the Ameritech Open in Chicago, Illinois, recording
her first career wins over top 10 players. She finished 1997 in the
top 100 at no. 99.
1998
1998 was the first year when she finished in the WTA top 20. She began
the season in Sydney as a qualifier, ranked no. 96, and she beat world
no. 3 Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinal. Serena, with her top 20
ranking, was then expected to do well in her first Grand Slam tournament,
but she lost in the second round of the Australian Open to sister Venus.
Serena reached six other quarterfinals during the season. She won
the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon and US Open with Max Mirnyi, completing
the Williams family's sweep of the 1998 mixed doubles Grand Slams.
Sister Venus also won the mixed doubles at the Australian and Roland
Garros opens with Justin Gimelstob. She won her first pro title in
doubles at Oklahoma City with sister Venus becoming the third pair
of sisters to win a WTA tour women's doubles title. She earned 2.6
million dollars in the season.
1999
In 1999, Serena was ranked number 21, and she and sister Venus had
become celebrities. She defeated Amélie Mauresmo in a final
the same day that Venus won in Oklahoma City, marking first time in
professional tennis history tht two sisters had won titles in the same
week.
Ranked number 21, she defeated 3 top 10 players: world no. 2 Lindsay Davenport in the second round, world no. 8 Mary Pierce in the quarterfinal, and world no. 7 Steffi Graf in the final at Indian Wells.
Serena has been the focus of many ad campaigns, including one with shoe and clothes maker Puma, which signed her to a $12 million agreement.
On September 11, 1999, Serena won her first Grand Slam tournament
when she became US Open champion, becoming the first African American
woman to win a Grand Slam tournament since Althea Gibson in 1958. The
next day, she and sister Venus won the doubles championship at the
same tournament. She finished 1999 ranked no. 4 in just her third full
season.
2000-2002
In 2000, she won the doubles gold medal at the Olympics with sister
Venus. 2001 was the third consecutive year in which she finished in
the top 10 reaching her first Grand Slam singles final in two years.
In 2002, she won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open.
2003
She won the Australian Open in 2003, her fourth straight Grand Slam singles
title, becoming only the ninth woman ever to win all four Grand Slam
events. Her accomplishment was dubbed the Serena Slam.
For the first time since January 2002, the Grand Slam final did not read Williams-Williams at the French Open in June 2003. Venus lost to Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round of the French Open. Among boos and catcalls, Serena lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium in a controversial match marred by cheating on the part of Henin-Hardenne. Henin-Hardenne backed away from her position, just as Serena was about to serve at a critical point in the match. Serena missed the serve. After a futile exchange with the umpire which turned the crowd against her, the lost point stayed. Henin-Hardenne later said she would have told the umpire the truth about obstructing the serve "if it was anyone but Serena." Henin-Hardenne's coach, Carlos Rodriguez publicly voiced the same sentiment. Henin-Hardenne arrogantly commented: "Everybody's happy today, but the Williams sisters." Henin-Hardenne still sports a losing record against Serena Williams.
At Wimbledon in 2003, Serena Williams became back-to-back champion, completely crushing an overwhelmed and inferior Henin-Hardenne in straight set in the semifinals and her sister Venus in the finals by a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Serena beat her sister Venus to win the Australian Open in 2003. This was only the sixth time a woman has held all four of tennis' major championships within 12 months. This accomplishment was also remarkable in that Serena had to beat her sister each time. The Williams siblings are the first two women in Grand Slam history to square off in five consecutive finals.
Williams' older sister, Yetunde Price, was murdered on the morning
of September 14, 2003, by gunshots as she passed by in a car driven
by a man in the Compton area.
2004-2005
Serena withdrew from Australian Open 2004 to continue rehabilitating
her left knee. She reached the final of Wimbledon once again, but lost
to the 17-year-old Russian player Maria Sharapova. On July 30, Serena
withdrew from her quarterfinal match against Russia's Vera Zvonareva
with a left knee injury. On August 1, she announced her withdrawal
from the Rogers Cup due to the same injury. The injury also forced
her to pull out of the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Controversy has arisen over Williams's level of dedication to the sport. Some believe that she is far too concerned with her fashion and acting careers and has not focused enough recently on her tennis. Disappointing performances during 2004 have been cited as proof of this lack of focus. However, in 2005, she won her seventh Grand Slam event, winning the Australian Open. She defeated the three of the tournament's top 4 seeds, #2 Amelie Mauresmo, #4 Maria Sharapova and #1 Lindsay Davenport, en route to the title.
In April 2005, MTV announced plans to broadcast a reality show around the lives of Serena and Venus Williams. Williams was also on Punk'd when she was trying to save a Punk'd problem kid played by Rob Pinkston until Ashton Kutcher exposed the set-up.
Her participation in Wimbledon 2005 ended in the third round when she was beaten by fellow American Jill Craybas (ranked 85th in the world) 6-3, 7-6(4). Serena broke down in tears in the subsequent press conference. She had come into the tournament with an stress fracture in her ankle, a severe lack of conditioning, and had not played a competitive match for six weeks, missing the French Open.
As Serena slumped in the tournament, Venus progressed, defeating top-seeded Lindsay Davenport in the 2005 Wimbledon final. Venus admitted later that she emulated Serena's never-say-die spirit, and this attitude led her Wimbledon victory.