Renowned professional tennis player, Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981 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. The family moved to Compton, California, when the children were very young. Serena started playing tennis at the age of three.
Serena, who is often regarded by commentators, players and sports writers as the greatest female tennis player of all time. She has ranked World No 1 at the The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in singles on eight occasions, from 2002 to 2017. On the sixth occasion, she held the ranking for 186 consecutive weeks, tying the record set by Steffi Graf for the most consecutive weeks as world No. 1 by a female tennis player. In total, she has been world No. 1 for 319 weeks, which ranks her third in the Open Era among female tennis players. On April 19, 2017, she announced a hiatus from tennis until 2018 due to her pregnancy.
She has been recorded to hold the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined amongst active players. Her record of 39 Grand Slam titles puts her third on the all-time list and second in the Open Era: 23 in singles, 14 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent female player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously (2002–03 and 2014–15) and the third player to achieve this record twice after Rod Laver and Steffi Graf. She is also, together with her sister Venus, the most recent player to have held all four Grand Slam women’s doubles titles simultaneously (2009–10).
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Serana has a record of 23 Grand Slam singles which marks the record for the most Grand Slam wins by a tennis player in the Open Era, and is second on the all-time list behind Margaret Court. She is the only tennis player in history (man or woman) to have won singles titles at least six times in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments, and the only player ever to have won two of the four Grand Slams seven times each (seven Wimbledon titles and seven Australian Open titles). She is without doubt the only tennis player to have won 10 Grand Slam singles titles in two separate decades. She has won an all-time record of 13 Grand Slam singles titles on hard court. Serena holds the Open Era record for most titles won at the Australian Open (7) and shares the Open Era record for most titles won at the US Open with Chris Evert (6). She also holds the all-time record for the most women’s singles matches won at the Grand Slams with 316 matches.
She has won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles alongside her sister Venus, and together they form a formidable force which is unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. As a team, she and Venus have the third most women’s doubles grand slam titles, behind the 18 titles of Natasha Zvereva (14 with Gigi Fernández) and the record 20 titles won by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. Serena is also a five-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships in the singles division. Serena has also 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. She has won the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year award three times (2003, 2010, 2016), and in December 2015, she was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated magazine
Serena was the highest paid female athlete in 2016, earning $28.9 million in prize money and endorsements. She was also enlisted in 2017 as the only woman on Forbes’ list of the 100 highest paid athletes with $27.0 million in prize money and endorsements.
She is married to Alexis Ohanian in 2017 and they have a child whom they named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.
