Serena Williams

For all their success on the WTA tour, it’s surprising that neither Serena Williams nor her sister Venus has a Junior Major to their name. They also failed to win the Orange Bowl, the premier junior tennis tournament that introduced the world to Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Chris Evert among many others.  It wasn’t for lack of talent at a young age, but rather by design — their father Richard Williams’ design, to be precise. Just as the Americans were starting to tear up the junior circuit, Richard Williams decided to pull his daughters out of tennis and have them focus on their education instead. Both sisters turned professional at the very young age of 14. Serena Williams made her debut at the 1995 Challenge Bell at the age of 14. 

Serena won her first major singles title at the 1999 US Open. From the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open, she was dominant, winning all four major singles titles (each time over Venus in the final) to achieve a non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam, known as the “Serena Slam”. The next few years saw her claim two more singles majors, but suffer from injury and decline in form. Beginning in 2007, however, she gradually returned to form despite continued injuries, retaking the world No. 1 singles ranking. Beginning at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, Williams returned to dominance, claiming Olympic gold and becoming the first tennis player to achieve a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. She won eight out of thirteen singles majors, including all four in a row from 2014–15 to achieve a second “Serena Slam”. At the 2017 Australian Open, she won her 23rd major singles title, surpassing Steffi Graf’s Open Era record. 

Serena defeated No. 1, Hingis in the 1999 US Open finals, to become the second African-American woman, after Althea Gibson in 1958, to win a Grand Slam singles tournament. This was her first ever grand slam title. At the 2002 Wimbledon Championships, Williams won tennis’s oldest championship for the first time in her life, defeating Venus to win a Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set for the first time in her career. This victory earned Williams the world No. 1 ranking for the first time, dethroning her sister and becoming only the third African American woman to hold that ranking. Williams was the third seed at the French Open at Roland Garros, where she claimed her first title thereby defeating her sister Venus in the final to win her second Grand Slam tournament title. Serena faced Venus for the fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament final in the 2003 Australian Open, defeating her older sister to become the sixth woman in the Open Era to complete a career Grand Slam.

Serena Williams has a place on Forbes’ list of America’s richest self-made women, at No. 90 with an estimated net worth of $260 million. Williams has more than a dozen corporate partners, and even as her playing schedule has dwindled, with no more than eight tournaments in a year since 2015, she has remained an inescapable presence on television screens, appearing in two separate Super Bowl commercials this year, for Michelob Ultra and Tonal. Williams has investments in more than 60 startups through her firm Serena Ventures, which announced in March 2022 that it had raised an inaugural fund of $111 million.

Serena Williams was born on September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. Both her parents are American tennis coaches and the father of Venus and Serena Williams. She has 6 siblings named Venus Williams, Yetunde Price, Lynda Price, Isha Price, Richard Williams III, Ronner Williams. She is the youngest of Price’s five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde, Lyndrea, and Isha Price, and full older sister Venus. She also has at least seven paternal half-siblings.