Serena Williams

Her father moved the family from Michigan to Compton over her mother's objections, on the theory that a hard place would make his daughters hard enough. He had studied how champions get made, home-schooled the girls, and put a racket in her hand at four. When she was nine they moved again, to West Palm Beach, so she and Venus could work with the coach Rick Macci. Then at 10 her father pulled them off the national junior circuit altogether. He said he wanted them to go slowly and stay in school and not burn out, and he had also heard how white parents at those tournaments talked about his children. She was already ranked first in Florida among under-10s.

She turned professional at 14 in Quebec City in October 1995 and won her first major at the 1999 US Open, beating Martina Hingis at 17. She held all four majors at once twice, in 2002 and 2003 and again in 2014 and 2015, a feat the tour named after her. She finished with 23 major singles titles, more than anyone else in the Open era and one short of Margaret Court's all-time mark, plus 14 majors in doubles with her sister, in which pairing they never lost a final, and four Olympic gold medals. She spent 319 weeks at world number one, 186 of them consecutively, which tied Steffi Graf. The 23rd major, the 2017 Australian Open, she won while pregnant.

The record has a body count attached. In September 2003 her half-sister Yetunde Price, who worked as her personal assistant, was shot dead in a drive-by in Compton. In March 2011, months after cutting her feet on broken glass in a Munich restaurant, Williams was found to have a hematoma and a pulmonary embolism. Olympia was delivered by emergency caesarean on September 1, 2017, after the baby's heart rate dropped, and a second pulmonary embolism put her in bed for six weeks. And she has fought the officials in public: after the 2018 US Open final she said the umpire's three code violations reflected a double standard, a reading the tour endorsed and much of the sport disputed.

In August 2022 she wrote in Vogue that she was evolving away from tennis, and on September 2 she lost in the third round of the US Open, and the sport held a funeral for a career that was not over. She re-entered the anti-doping testing pool in December 2025, denied everything, and announced a comeback on June 1, 2026. She won a doubles match at Queen's a week later with a teenage partner. On June 30 she lost a three-set Wimbledon first round to Maya Joint, 20 years her junior, then withdrew from the doubles with a knee injury. She is 44. Where she ranks is argued over constantly, and the record is apparently still open.

Serena Williams's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• The 1999 US Open other
  Her first major, at 17, over Martina Hingis 1999
• The Serena Slam other
  All four majors held at once, in 2002 and 2003 and again in 2014 and 2015 2003
• Serena Ventures company
  Her venture firm, which had raised more than 110 million dollars by 2022 2014
• The 2017 Australian Open other
  Her 23rd major, won in the first weeks of a pregnancy 2017
• Angel City FC company
  A Los Angeles soccer franchise founded by a mostly female ownership group she joined 2020

• 1991 aged ~10 Ranked first in Florida among players under 10, with a 46 and 3 record Her father then pulled her off the national junior circuit.
• October 1995 aged 14 Turns professional at 14 in Quebec City
• September 1999 aged 17 Wins the US Open at 17 for her first major
• March 2001 aged 19 Wins Indian Wells and does not enter it again for 14 years Her father said spectators aimed racist comments at him during the tournament.
• September 14, 2003 aged 21 Her half-sister Yetunde Price is shot dead in Compton
• January 28, 2017 aged 35 Wins a 23rd major at the Australian Open while pregnant
• September 1, 2017 aged 35 Olympia is born by emergency caesarean A pulmonary embolism after the delivery left her bedridden for six weeks.
• September 2, 2022 aged 40 Loses in the third round of the US Open in what everyone took for a farewell She had written in Vogue that month that she was evolving away from tennis.
• June 30, 2026 aged 44 Loses a three-set Wimbledon first round to Maya Joint at 44 It was her first singles match in nearly four years.

• Althea Gibson 1927–2003
  Tennis champion who broke the sport's color barrier and became the first Black player to win major singles titles. broke the color line she plays inside
• Arthur Ashe 1943–1993
  Tennis champion and activist who broke racial barriers and advocated for education, civil rights, and AIDS awareness. the stadium she won on
• Billie Jean King b. 1943
  Tennis champion and advocate for gender equality who defeated Bobby Riggs in the famous Battle of the Sexes. won the prize money she competed for
• Martina Navratilova b. 1956
  Tennis champion with the most singles and doubles titles in the Open Era and LGBTQ advocate. earlier holder of the records she chased
• Alexis Ohanian b. 1983
  Co-founder of Reddit and venture capitalist who has championed open internet and paternity leave. married to
• Simone Biles b. 1997
  Gymnast widely regarded as the greatest of all time, with the most World Championship medals. successor in the argument about greatness