Serena Williams was born on 26th September 1981 in Sagunaw, Michigan, and is the youngest among her five sisters Yetunde, Lyndrea, Isha, and Venus. Her father Richard and mother Oracene moved to the Michigan, to Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, when they all are very young. An ardent fan of tennis, her father always wanted to make one of her daughter tennis pro, hence he along with his wife brought instructional videotapes, guide books to learn the game, so that they could guide their daughters through the game, but not one, two of his daughters stand by their dreams and amazed the world with their talents and athleticism.
Both Serena and Venus started hitting tennis ball from their early age and Serena participated and won a tournament for the first time when she was just four and half years old. Her father recalls in next five years, she won 46 matches out of 49 she participated. Both the sisters excelled in tennis and Serena at one point replaced her sister Venus as the number one ranked tennis player aged 12 or under in California. Their talents were get noticed by the people beyond their home states and soon they were approached for endorsements from reputed sports apparel companies and they received call from many prestigious tennis clubs.
Constant practice and intense competition is a key to stardom, but Richard Williams prefer something else, he was not interested in her daughters plying the junior tennis. Fearing intense competition, game stress and racial hostility, he withdrew both his daughters from junior tournaments, the step widely criticized by tennis insiders. Richard then invited professional coach Rick Macci who has earlier coached tennis stars like Mary Pierce and Jennifer Capriati to watch his daughters’ game, he was impressed by the skill and athleticism of Serena and Venus and invited them to join his Florida academy. Playing more events and signing lucrative endorsements, they could make enough money and soon purchased a home in Palm Beach Gardens, near to their tennis school.
Apart from her tennis skill, Serena is well known for her unusual and colourful outfits on court. In 2002 U.S. Open tournament, she appeared wearing leather looking catsuit which created an on-court stir, again at the 2004 U.S. Open, she come up wearing denim skirts and boots. In November 2004 during the London premier of Pierce Brosnan's new film After the Sunset, she grab the attention of the media as well as the public by appearing in an outfit that was highly exposing.
Besides her life in tennis, she has her own line of designer clothing called Aneres (name coined with her name spelled backward) that targets the market in Miami and Los Angeles. She love watching movies and her favorite TV show is Golden Girls. She loves to hear Beyonce, Brandy and U2 and she is a die-heart fan of Marilyn Monroe.
Career in Tennis
Serena started her professional career at the age of 14 in September 1995 in a tournament in Quebec City, a non-WTA events, she could not win the match and thrown out in les than an hour of play.
1997 proved to be a successful year for Serena Williams, ranking down in 304 position, she defeated Monica Seles and Mary Pierce who were then among the top 10. This stunning success resulted big leap on her ranking and she reached to 99position as year ends.
From position 99 to 20, it happened the very next year in 1998, she defeated world number three player Lindsay Davenport in a quarterfinal in Sydney, later that she appeared in Grand Slam tournament Australian Open, but lost to sister Venus Williams in the second round. She won her first mixed double titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open teaming up with Max Mirnyi. She along with her sister Venus again bagged pro title in doubles at Oklahoma City and became the third pair of sisters to win a WTA tour women’s double title.
Year 1999 was an auspicious start for Serena as she won a tournament defeating Amelie Mauresmo in Paris. She then won Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, defeating Lindsay Davenport (World No. 2) in the second round, Mary Pierce (World No. 8) in a quarterfinal, and Steffi Graf (World No. 7) in the three-set final. Next game was Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Serena reached final defeating Monica Seles and Martina Hingis, this was the first time that two sisters were competing together for the title and eventually Serena lost the game to Venus.
Serena and Venus then teamed up to win women’s doubles title at French Open but lost the single match reaching up to the third round. She again won hard court tournament in Los Angeles, defeating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (world no. 8), Hingis (world no. 1), and Julie Halard-Decugis.
Serena won her first Grand Slam title winning U.S Open and en route defeated Monica Seles (world no. 4), Lyndsey Devenport (world no. 2) and Martina Hingis (world no. 1). With this win, she became the second African-American woman to win a Grand Slam singles tournament, first being set by Althea Gibson in 1958. Serena again won Grand Slam title at Munich defeating sister Venus and a single and double title at Fed Cup defeating Elena Dementieva and Elena Makarova 6–2, 6–1 teaming up with Venus. She was positioned in 4th place as the year ends and in the same year she was endorsed by Puma at an agreement of $12 million.
Following year could not become much interesting; she was beaten by sister Venus at Wimbledon competition and later defeated to Lindsay Davenport in straight sets in the quarterfinals of U.S Open. Serena and Venus again picked up gold medal at Sydney Olympic and the sisters again won the women's doubles title at Wimbledon, as the year ends, she was in 6th position.
Year 2001 was an auspicious year for both Williams, as they won "Career Grand Slam" by winning all four women’s double Grand Slam titles and became the fifth women's doubles team in history to win all four Grand Slam doubles titles during their career. Serena then won Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, and Tier I Rogers Cup in Toronto, she reached the final of the U.S. Open defeating Hingis but lost to sister Venus, she was again ranked 6th in the world.
Injury plagued her schedule in 2002 and she could not compete at the Australian Open but soon get her first success of the season in Scottsdale, defeating number one Jennifer Capriati in the final, Tier I event in Miami again defeating Jennifer Capriati and won her first career title on clay in Rome, defeating Justine Henin.
She won her second Grand Slam title at French Open defeating Vera Zvonareva and Capriati nad Venus Williams 7–5 6–3 in the final. She then went on to participate in Wimbledon and fought to win the title defeating sister Venus again in the final, 7–6 6–3, and both sisters won the women’s double titles too in the event. Such consecutive win resulted in the improvement of her ranking and she was placed in number one position for the first time in her career.
In 2003 at Sustralian Open, Serena reached the final defeating Clijsters 4–6 6–3 7–5 in semifinal, she faced sister Venus for fourth consecutive Grand Slam final and won the match 7–6 3–6 6–4 to become the fifth woman in the Open era to complete a Career Grand Slam, other predecessor were Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.
Serena then went on to play French Open with a hope to win her fifth Grand Slam title but unfortunately lost to eventual champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the semifinals 6–2 4–6 7–5. She went on to play at Wimbledon and captured her sixth Grand Slam title there defeating Henin-Hardenne 6–3 6–2 in the semifinal and defeating Venus 4–6 6–4 6–2 in the final. But she again encountered knee injury around August which led to the fall of her ranking from number one to number three at year’s end.
Serena could not be the part of 2004 Australian Open due her knee injury, she went on to participate at the French Open but was defeated by Jennifer Capriati 6–3, 2–6, 6–3 in quarterfinal. She then reached the final of Wimbledon but was defeated by young 17 years old Russian player Maria Sharapova 6–1, 6–4. Her tennis schedule was crippled by another knee injury, and she withdrew herself from other competition like match in San Diego, Rogers Cup and Summer Olympic. But before the end of the year, she came back in form and defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final at China Open in Beijing and gathered enough points to be qualified for the WTA Tour Championships, where she again lost to Sharapova in the final.
Beginning of the 2005 remained very auspicious for Serena as she could win her seventh Grand Slam singles title defeating Amelie Mauresmo (world no. 2), Maria Sharapova (world no. 4), and Lindsay Davenport (world no. 1). At Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, she faced Venus in the final but defeated with her. HTen she was withdrew from major events like French Open, U. S. Open and her ranking dropped down to no. 11 at the end of the year. Same year, TENNIS Magazine placed Serena in 17th place in its list of "40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era."
Year 2006 saw a drastic fall in her world ranking as she did not participated in many events due to her injury. Without taking up warm up tournaments for Australina Open, she was defeated in the third round by Daniela Hantuchova 6–1, 7–6(5)., her ranking fall beyond top 50. She again withdrew herself from the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open, and the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida and Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, her ranking fell out of the top 100 for the first time, and announced her inability to be the part of French Open and Wimbledon. Ranked 139 in the world, she got wild card entry to summer hard court tournaments in Cincinnati, Los Angele, she defeated World No. 11 Anastasia Myskina 6–2, 6–2 in the first round but missed the final as she was defeated in the semifinal by the eventual champion Vera Zvonareva 6–2, 6–3, these activity bring her up and positioned in 108th place. Serena again got a wild card entry for the U.S. Open tournament but she lost in the fourth round to Amelie Mauresmo 6–4, 0–6, 6–2.
Determined to scale up her ranking and regain #1 world ranking, Serena began her 2007 session with warm up tournament for 2007 Australian Open at Moorilla Hobart International in Tasmania, Australia, she was eliminated at the quarterfinal by unseeded Sybille Bammer of Austria.
At the Australian Open, she succeeded in capturing her third Australian Open singles title and her eighth Grand Slam singles title by defeating Maria Sharapova 6–1, 6–2 in the final, en route she defeated Nadia Petrova of Russia in the third round and Nicole Vaidisova in the semifinal. This marvelous win threw her ranking up into 14th position from the 81st. In the middle of the year, she won her first singles match in the first round of Fed Cup but she took a break to rest her knee.
Serena then went on to participate Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia tournament in Rome, although she lost the game to Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6–3, 2–6, 7–6(5), her ranking re-entered the top 10, ranking her in 9th position. Rest of the events was shadowed by acute muscle spasm, thumb injury, and abstain herself from many events including U.S. Open, and she was in 7th position by the end of the year.
2008 began with a success in Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia in both singles and doubles. In single match, she defeated Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and in mixed doubles, defeated Jankovic and Novak Djokovic, 7–6(4), 6–2 partnering Mardy Fish.
She entered the 2008 French Open as a defending champion but lost in the quarterfinals to World No. 4 and third-seeded Jankovic 6–3, 6–4. Serena along with her sister Venus defeated second seeded team Katarina Srebotnik and Ai Sugiyama, in the second round 6–2, 7–6, but they were mowed down in the quarterfinal by the seventh-seeded team, Zheng Jie and Yan Zi.
Serena won her 30th career singles at the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida. She defeated Justine Henin (#1) in the quarterfinals 6–2, 6–0, Svetlana Kuznetsova (#3) in the semifinals 3–6, 7–5 and Jankovic (#4) in the final.
Her tenth career Tier I title came when went on to take play at the clay court Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina and became victorious defeating Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals 7–5, 4–6, 6–1 and Vera Zvonareva in the final. This win was her first clay court title since the 2002 French Open.
Serena then went on to participate in Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin seeded fifth, but lost the match against thirteenth-seeded Dinara Safina 2–6, 6–1, 7–6(5) in the quarterfinal.
Entertainment
Serena appeared on TV show The Simpsons tennis themed episode along with her sister Venus when the preceding duo Bart and Lisa were denied by their parents to play against each other.
In 2002, she was seen in an episode "Crouching Mother, Hidden Father" of My Wife and Kids playing Miss Wiggins and also made a guest appearance on an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In 2007, Serena again appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race along with dozed of celebrities in a stock car racing competition and was teamed with surfer Laird Hamilton and former NFL quarterback John Elway.
January 2007 issue of TV Guide magazine has announced that Serena Williams will provide a guest voice on the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender next season.
Serena along with Eva Mendes, Joss Stone, and five other celebrities posed naked in the July issue of Jane Magazine.
