Biography of Serena Williams

Serena Williams is a former world No. 1 professional tennis player, hailing from the United States of America. She has 20 Grand Slams to her credit in a career spanning just over a decade. She was ranked the 17th-best player in the World in the last forty years, by 'Tennis Magazine'.

Biography of Serena Williams
Serena Williams was born on September 26, 1981, in Michigan, United States. She was the youngest of five daughters born to tennis coach Richard Williams and Oracene Williams. She started playing tennis at the early age of four. By the age of nine, Serena and her sister Venus were enrolled into Rick Macci's Academy of tennis. But in 1995, they left the academy and began training under their father.

She made her debut in professional tennis in 1995, in the Bell Challenge, a tier III tennis tournament, in Quebec City. In 1997, Serena, ranked 304th, surprised the whole world by defeating Monica Seles and Mary Pierce in the Ameritech Cup Chicago. She rose to the 99th rank by the end of the year. The following year she stunned the World No. 3, Lindsay Davenport, in the quarterfinals of the Medibank International Sydney. A steady run, and making it to the quarterfinals of six different events that year, ensured Serena a spot in WTA top 20 for the first time in her career in 1998.

Serena won her first professional tennis title in 1999, by defeating Amelie Mauresmo in the finals of Open Gaz de France. In the same year, she went on to win the Pacific Life Open, the U.S. Open and the Grandslam Cup, eventually making it to the No. 4 position in WTA rankings. She made a mark in the world of tennis by defeating Martina Hingis and Steffi Graf in 1999. She became only the second African American woman to win a major Grand Slam tournament when she won the U.S. Open that year. In 2000, she partnered with her sister Venus Williams to win an Olympic gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. The Williams sisters also won the Wimbledon Championship in 2000 and the Australian Open in 2001.

In 2002-2003, Serena won all four major Grand Slams defeating sister Venus Williams in the final of all the four tournaments. She won the French Open in June, the Wimbledon in July, the U.S. Open in September 2002, and the Australian Open in January 2003. She rose to the No. 1 position in the WTA rankings by winning eight singles title that year. She stayed at the top for 57 consecutive weeks. A knee injury in 2003 kept her out of the game for some time, which saw a fall in her rankings, but she still managed to finish the year at No. 3.

Sidelined for the most of the year, she was not able to win a single Grand Slam in 2004 and slipped to the 7th position. She made a strong comeback in 2005 winning her seventh Grand Slam title, and eventually making it to the 2nd spot in WTA rankings. During this period she was dating American director, Brett Ratner. In 2006, after being forced out of the game for almost the whole year again, she slipped out of top 100 for the first time in nine years.

After a bad phase in 2006, Serena Williams regained her form and made a strong comeback in 2007. She defeated Maria Sharapova to win the 2007 Australian Open. Although she didn't win any other major tournament that year, she made it to the 7th position in WTA rankings. 2008 brought in mixed success for the star, including a seventeen match winning streak and continuously haunting injury. Her win at the 2008 U.S. Open title ensured her the World No. 2 spot by the end of 2008.

She defeated Dinara Safina to win the 2009 Australian Open to regain the No. 1 spot. With this win her total prize money summed up to US$23,980,811, the highest amount of career prize money won by any female sports personality around the world. But she was not able to retain the No.1 spot for long, and lost it to Dinara Safina.

Always in the news for her flamboyant style statements, on and off court, Serena has been associated with brands like Puma, Lycra and Nike. She also featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2003 and 2004. She appeared in music video of "I Want You" by the American rapper Common, in 2007. She has been actively involved in social causes in the fields of education and health.

Serena's long list of accolades feature awards such as the WTA Newcomer of the Year, 34th NAACP Image Awards President's Award, ESPY Award Best Female Tennis Player, Laureus World Comeback of the Year and WTA Player of the Year.

Serena Williams has come a long way to be what she is in the world of tennis today. Her frequent trysts with injury may have been holding her back for quite sometime now, but her fans know that Serena will be back, stronger than ever.