Serene Williams is an American professional tennis player who was ranked world number 1 in singles on eight separate occasions from 2002 to 2017 by the Women’s Tennis Association. Also, she currently ranked as the 22 best players in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association.
Early life
She was born as Serene Jameka Williams on 26 September 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan, the United States. Her father’s Richard Williams is and mother’s name is Oracene Price. She has 4 half-sisters from her mother and seven half-siblings from her father. When they were too young, her family moved to Campton, California. There she started playing tennis at the age of three. With her sister Venus, she was home-schooled by her father. After nine, she moved to West Palm Beach, Florida with her family to attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci. While her 10, her father Richard wanted her to focus on her study, so he stopped sending her daughters to national junior tournaments. Similarly, racism also made him stop them as he heard white parents talking about the William Sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments. At that moment, she was ranked number 1 among under-10tennis players in Florida as she had made a 46-3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour. In her grade 9, her father pulled her from Rick academy to coach her at their home and make her focus more on school and tennis.
Controversy
One of the upsets in tournament history occurred when Naomi Osaka won her first Grand Slam title on 8 September 2018, by beating up Serena Williams in the New York. This is the first time in her sporting life that she lost Grand Slam title by someone as she has won all 23 Game Slam title in which she had taken part. Osaka became the first Japanese player to win the Grand Slam title and break the record of Serena’s winning her 24th Grand Slam title.
Career
As she was taught tennis since her childhood, so she started her career as a professional tennis player in October 1995at the Bell Challenge in Quebec. However, she lost the game in the first round. After that, in 1999, she won family’s Grand Slam by beating up her sister Venus in the tennis game. Later in 2008, she teamed up with her sister Venus and won a gold medal in the Beijing Game. She continued playing and in 2012, she again won her fourth Olympic gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Subsequently, she again teamed up with Venus and conquered doubles championship after their sixth Wimbledon game together in 2016. Later, defeating Venus, she won her 23rd Game Slam title and made a historic victory after which she took the number 1 world ranking.
Awards
She has won huge awards among which some of her best highlights are listed below:
- Espy Awards (Best Female Athlete, 2003, 2013)
- Glamor Award for The Athlete (2009)
- Teen Choice Award (Best female tennis player (2010, 2012, 2014)
- Laureus World Sports Award for this year (2010,2016, 2018)
- Espy Awards (Best Female Tennis Player, 2015-2017)
- Sports Person Of The Year (2015)
- BET Award for this year’s female athlete (2015-2017)
- Shorty Award for Best in Sports (2018)
Net worth
At current (2018), her net worth is estimated to be $170 million that she earned through her tennis profession. During her lifetime sports, she has won 86% of her matches with an open era record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles. Similarly, she has received $84 million as her career prize money which is more than twice as much as any other female athletes. She has also earned $15-$20 million in a year through multiple product endorsements. Similarly, she has also signed a $40 million deal to create a fashion line with Nike in 2004. However, her annual income is estimated to be around $8 million. Being a sports lady, she is very much fund of cars. So she has made a collection of luxurious cars including Aston Martin Valkyrie, Bentley Continental GT, Range Rover Evoque, Mercedes GL Glass, Lincoln Navigator, and so on. While talking about her mansions than she has overall 4 mansions among which she wants to sell one of her mansions for $12 million that is located in California.
Personal life
She was in a romantic relationship with rapper Common but their relationship ended in 2010. After that, in 2016, she announced her engagement with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. A year later, on 1 September 2017, she gave birth to Alexis daughter named Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr. Then, on 17 November 2017, the couple tied into a marriage alliance which was held at New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center. At current, she is living a happy life together with her husband and daughter.
Facts
Apart from being a professional tennis player, she has also appeared in Common’ s music video in 2007 with Alicia Keys, Kerry Washington, and Kanye West. At present, she is living with her family in Palm Beach, Florida.
