Recently, there came the news that Williams waved farewell to tennis. Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She came to be known as an American professional tennis player.
Serena, who set up a record 13 Grand Slam singles titles on hard court, still holds the Open Era record for the most women’s singles titles at the Australian Open. She had set another record by winning multiple women’s singles matches at majors. Amazingly, she is the only tennis player to win three of the four Grand Slams at least six times.
She became the five-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships in the singles division. In doubles, the Williams sisters too had earned the third most women’s doubles Grand Slam titles except for the 18 titles of Natasha Zvereva and the record 20 titles won by Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver. Serena and Venus would go down in history as the only tennis players with four Olympic gold medals.
Later on, they became the only Open Era women tennis players to win Olympic Gold in the singles and doubles categories. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Serena Williams garnered popularity by becoming the third player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at one Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody at the 1924 Summer Olympics and Venus at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Williams shocked and rocked the arena , setting another record as the only player to accomplish a Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.
Childhood
Being the youngest of five daughters, she has reached even the unforgivable heights as a mischievous one. The family had to move to Compton, California ,when these kids were too young. However, proving her natural skills, Williams started playing tennis at age four.
Her father had home-schooled Serena and her sister, Venus. We cannot underestimate their parents’ dedication and commitment. Both her father and mother have been their official coaches. Richard Williams is one of her mentors. Williams and her family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach, Florida later.
At that time, she was nine years old. Hopefully, Williams’ destiny was not cruel to her because she received the opportunity to attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci. She could get additional coaching. Speaking of Macci , Macci and Williams’ father had far different opinions.
Macci disagreed with Williams’s father but respected him. It is said that Williams’ father had mollycoddled his daughters. “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 because he wanted his children to go slowly.
Not only that, there were some other reasons as well. Racism too was flaring up. On hearing that most white parents talked about Williams and his daughters in a bad manner during tournaments, he was disappointed.
Serena had set over 46–3 records on the United States Tennis Association junior tour. She was ranked number one among under-10 players in Florida. Williams’ father wanted to keep her daughter at home.
When she was in the ninth grade, her father did not allow his daughters to attend Macci’s Academy. Richard took over all coaching at their home. When asked about this in 2000, she had said, “Everyone does things in different ways. I think for Venus and I, we just attempted a different road, and it worked for us.”
Professional player
Serena’s parents were highly committed and enthusiastic. They wanted their daughter Williams to wait until she was 16 to participate in professional tournaments. Just after turning 14, Williams made her professional debut as a wild-card entry in the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California. Sadly, she was denied entry by the WTA owing to age-eligibility restrictions.
She subsequently filed an antitrust lawsuit against the women’s tour, but withdrew it at her parents’ request. Her first professional event was held in October 1995 at the Bell Challenge in Quebec. It is said that Williams did not play a tournament in 1996.
She had lost in the qualifying rounds of three tournaments before winning her first main-draw match in November at the Ameritech Cup Chicago. As a qualifier ranked No. 96, she defeated No. 3 Davenport in the quarterfinals.
Williams made her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open and defeated sixth-seeded Irina Spîrlea in the first round. In the end she lost to her sister, Venus, in the second round in the sisters’ first professional match. Though she had reached six other quarterfinals during the year, she had lost all of them including her first match against No. 1-ranked Martina Hingis at the Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne and her second match against Venus at the Italian Open in Rome.
She failed to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam tournament during the rest of the year. She withdrew from Wimbledon two games into a match with Virginia Ruano Pascual, after straining a calf muscle during the first set. She had won the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open with Max Mirnyi, completing the Williams family’s sweep of the 1998 mixed doubles Grand Slam tournaments.
She also won her first professional title in doubles in the U.S. National Indoor Championships in Oklahoma City with Venus. In the end, She became the third pair of sisters to win a WTA title and won two more doubles titles during that year. Williams finished the year ranked No. 20 in singles.
When compared with other players, Williams came to be known as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. They brought a new era and new hopes to the country by setting new records and transcending boundaries. The rise of the Williams sisters was an indelible event. Sherena holds the most combined major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, challenging other active players, with 39: 23 in singles. As an artiste too she had won hearts. She had acted in films like The Simpsons, My Wife and Kids, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Hair Show. Needless to say that Williams is a gem to the world.