Serena Williams Biography

Serena Williams

Born: September 26, 1981, Saginaw, Michigan, United States

Weight: 70 kg

Height: 1.75 m

Siblings: Venus Williams, Yetunde Price, Isha Price, Lyndrea Price

Parents: Oracene Price, Richard Williams

Movies and TV shows: Venus & Serena: For Real, Hair Show, Wimbledon 2009 Official Film, Charity Jam

Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked No. 1 in women's singles tennis. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her World No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and regained this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013, becoming the oldest world no. 1 player in WTA's history. She is the only female player to have won over $50 million in prize money. Williams is the reigning French Open, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic ladies singles champion.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Williams holds the most Major singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles combined amongst active players, male or female. She is the only player to have achieved a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. Her record of 32 Grand Slam titles puts her seventh on the all-time list: 17 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 ('02–'03) and only the fifth woman ever to do so. Her total of 17 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list, and fourth in the Open Era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). She has won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister Venus Williams and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam finals. Serena Williams is also a four-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Williams is only one of five tennis players all-time to win a multiple slam set in two disciplines, matching Margaret Court, Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova and Frank Sedgman. The arrival of Venus and Serena Williams has been credited with launching a new era of power and athleticism in women's tennis.

Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in women's singles and three in women's doubles, an all-time record shared with her sister Venus.

Early life

Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price and is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde, Lyndrea and Isha Price, and full sister Venus. When the children were young, the family moved to Compton, California, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of four. Her father home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus and to this day, Serena Williams was and remains coached by both her parents. Williams' family moved from Compton to West Palm Beachwhen 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". Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Williams was 10, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another factor was racial, as he had heard white parents talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments. 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. 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 attempted a different road, and it worked for us." In 2003 sister Yetunde was fatally shot in an SUV after a confrontation with youths in Compton

Playing style

Williams is primarily a baseline player, with a serve that critics, pundits and tennis experts consider the greatest serve in the history of women's tennis. Her game is built around taking immediate control of rallies with her powerful and consistent serve, 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. In the 2013 Australian Open, she had a peak serve speed of 128.6 mph (207.0 km/h) which was the second-fastest all-time among female players (Venus recorded the fastest with 129 mph). At the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Serena hit a women's tournament record of 102 aces which was more than any of the men hit during the two weeks. 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

Williams is also known for her mental toughness and her ability to come back from improbable situations. She has won three Grand Slam singles titles after saving match points (2003 Australian Open versus Kim Clijsters, 2005 Australian Open versus Maria Sharapova, and 2009 Wimbledon versus Elena Dementieva), more than any other player in history, male or female. In the 2012 US Open final against Victoria Azarenka, she was down 5-3 in the third set and found herself two points away from losing the match. Williams then proceeded to win the next 4 games and defeat Azarenka. In recent years, Williams has shown an ability to serve aces at critical moments. One of these instances was the 2013 French Open final, where in the last game of the match, she fired three aces, including one clocked at 123 mph (198 km/h) on match point.

Personal life

Williams and sister Venus are both Jehovah's Witnesseses and did not vote in the United States presidential election, 2008 because of their beliefs, despite expressing support for elected President Barack Obama. She dated the rapper Common for two years until they broke up in 2010.