Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan, US to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She is an American professional tennis player and the youngest of Price’s five daughters.
Serena’s family moved to Compton, California where she started playing tennis at age four. Her father home-schooled her and her sister, Venus. While her parents coach her, Serena’s other mentor included Richard Williams, a Compton man who later founded The Venus and Serena Williams Tennis Tutorial Academy.
She was ranked by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) as singles world No. 1 for 319 weeks, including a joint-record 186 consecutive weeks. She also finished as the year-end No. 1 five times. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era. Serena is the second-most of all time (behind Margaret Court’s 24).
She became a professional in 1995 and won her first major singles title at the 1999 US Open.
From the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open, she constantly won all four major singles titles (each time over Venus in the final)Â and achieved a non-calender year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam, known as the “Serena Slam”.
She has also won 14 major women’s doubles titles, all with her sister Venus. The duo remain unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. She made a non-calendar year Grand Slam between the 2009 Wimbledon Championship and the 2010 French Open which afforded her and her sister the doubles world No. 1 ranking. She has also won four Olympic gold medals, three in women’s doubles ( an all-time joint record she shared with her sister). In 1988, she also won two major mixed doubles titles.
The greatest tennis players of all time announced her impending retirement from professional tennis n August 2022.
Williams is widely considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Serena is married to Reddit, the co-founder of Alexis Ohanian who proposed to her on December 10, 2016, in Rome. They got married on December 30, 2016. In September 2017, she gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, often referred to as “Olympia”.
