Tennis Icons: Serena Williams
From public courts to centre court success
If you’re reading this, chances are you or your child play on tennis courts in parks. It’s likely where you had your first experience with the sport, whether that be coaching or just playing with friends.
And because of that, you have something in common with the person who has won more Grand Slam singles titles than any man or woman during the Open Era.
Serena Williams.
Her journey began on the municipal courts of Compton, California at age five alongside her older sister Venus. The pair were coached by their father, Richard Williams, and mother, Orcene, who had taught themselves the game from books and videos with the intent of coaching their children.
By 1991, Serena was ranked number one in the ten and under division of the United States Tennis Association (USTA). The same year the family relocated to Florida so that both sisters could attend a tennis academy. Williams continued to progress through the junior ranks until, at age 14, she made her professional debut. However, after she was defeated by Annie Millder, she did not play another professional match until 1997.
Serena’s Grand Slam success started shortly after, when she won the 1999 U.S. Open, 6-3, 7-6, defeating Martina Hingis. In the same tournament, she also won women’s doubles with her sister, Venus. The pair went on to win gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
2002 was the year Serena’s career reached a new level.
It started in June, when she won the French Open, defeating Venus 7-5, 6-3. Claiming her first French Open, and second singles slam. At Wimbledon, the sisters faced again. Venus was two-time defending champion, but Serena defeated her 7-6, 6-3, to claim another slam. On 8th July 2002, Serena reach number one ranking in the world, a position she went on to hold for 57 weeks straight. That summer they met again at the U.S. Open final. Venus was again going into this match as the two-time defending champion, and again Serena defeated her 6-4, 6-3.
This victory gave Serena three slams in a row, but this was not the end of her slam streak.
At the 2003 Australian Open, Serena defeated Venus in a gruelling three set final 7-6, 3-6, 6-4. This was not just Serena’s fourth slam in a row, but it meant she completed the career Grand Slam, making her one of only six women to achieve this. She held all four Grand Slam titles at once, something she dubbed as “The Serena Slam”.
This success continued throughout the noughties, despite breaks for injuries. Between 2003 and 2010, she won 9 single Grand Slams and Olympic gold in doubles. However, following a foot surgery in July 2011, Williams suffered her first pulmonary embolism, a life-threatening blood clot in her lung, in March 2012, an event that she says had her on her death bed.
Despite the severity of this condition, Williams returned to tennis at Eastbourne in June 2012, ahead of Wimbledon. Incredibly, she went on to capture her fifth Wimbledon singles title after a three-set battle with Agnieszka Radwanska, winning 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. She followed this with victory again at SW19, this time at the London 2012 Olympics, where she took the gold in both the singles and women’s doubles with Venus. Williams rounded out her year back by winning her 15th Slam title at the U.S. Open, where she defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.
After another successful year in 2013, where she won the French Open and the U.S. Open, Williams was tied with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for second highest women’s singles slams total of the Open Era. The 2013 to 2015 seasons marked her third, fourth, and fifth seasons at number one.
But it was 2016 that cemented Williams’ as one of the greats.
In the Wimbledon final, she defeated Angelique Kerber in the final 7-5, 6-3, giving her a 22nd Grand Slam title. This tied her with Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles, man or woman, in the Open Era.
A shock semi-final defeat in the 2016 U.S Open by Karolina Pliskova cost Williams not only the chance to beat Garf’s record but her number one ranking, which she’d held since February 2013, a span of 86 weeks. Another record she now held tied with Graf.
Then came the Australian Open.
Once again, Serena met her older sister, Venus, in the final.
After a game full of tension, that resulted in a broken racket only three games in, Serena came out as the successful sister. She defeated Venus 6-4, 6-4. This victory not only took her back to the number one spot, but she finally passed Steffi Graf’s record. Williams became the player with the most Slam singles titles.
In April 2017, Serena announced that she was pregnant, and that she had been during her Australian Open victory. Her pregnancy meant that she missed the rest of the 2017 season. She gave birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr in September 2017, however, she had an incredibly difficult childbirth, having an emergency caesarean-section and a second pulmonary embolism, as well as other severe complications.
She returned to the court in March 2018, but upon her return her ranking dropped to 549. Williams brought significant attention to this issue of rankings after having a child, which led the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to take action. The WTA’s new rule allowed players who left the sport for childbirth or injury to use their previous rankings to enter up to 12 tournaments within three years of their return. An incredible win for women’s sport.
In 2018, Williams reached the finals at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open but was defeated in both. This was repeated in 2019.
At the 2020 ASB Classing in Auckland, New Zealand, Williams won her first singles event in three years.
In 2021, she reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open but was defeated by Naomi Osaka. That same year she had to retire from Wimbledon and the U.S. Open due to injuries. After missing the first half of the 2022 season, Williams was defeated in the first round of Wimbledon.
On the 9th of August 2022, Vogue published an article written by Serena titled “Serena Williams Says Farewell to Tennis On Her Own Terms – And In Her Own Words”, where she announced her retirement from tennis to continue to build her family following the U.S. Open. In the article, Williams stated she doesn’t like the word retirement and was thinking of this “as more a transition”. The article discusses the emotional turmoil Williams felt at leaving the sport, from the role her gender played in her decision, to the emotional weight of leaving the sport she’s known and loved since childhood. She said she didn’t know how she’d look at the magazine when it came out, “knowing that this is it, the end of a story that started in Compton, California, with a little Black girl who just wanted to play tennis”.
References
Williams, S., as told to Haskell, R. (2022) ‘Serena Williams says farewell to tennis on her own terms — and in her own words’, Vogue, 9 August. Available at: https://www.vogue.com/article/serena-williams-retirement-in-her-own-words (Accessed: [10/09/25]).
Graham, B. A. (2016) ‘Serena Williams out of US Open with shock loss to Karolina Pliskova’, The Guardian, 9 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/09/serena-williams-out-of-us-open-with-shock-loss-to-karolina-pliskova (Accessed: 10 September 2025).
Ronay, B. (2011) ‘Serena Williams reveals how blood clot left her “on my death bed”’, The Guardian, 13 June. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2011/jun/13/serena-williams-blood-clot-wimbledon (Accessed: 10 September 2025).