The month of March is solely dedicated to celebrating all of the fantastic women of the world, with one of those being the fantastic woman Serena Williams. Williams is a former professional American tennis player; she was ranked number one in singles tennis for 319 weeks straight and is considered one of the best tennis players of all time. She won 23 Grand Slam titles and is the only player to ever win a Golden Slam in both doubles and singles.
Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on September 26, 1981. Her parents are Oracene Price, her mother, and Richard Williams, her father, who raised her, and she is the youngest of five older siblings. When she and her siblings were young, they moved to Compton, California, where she found her love for tennis at the ripe age of four. Her dad home-schooled her and her sister Venus Willams so they could have more tennis practice time. Their family moved again when she was nine to West Palm Beach, Florida so that she could attend Rick Macci’s tennis academy. At fourteen, Serena became a professional tennis player, making her public debut in Quebec City in 1995. There, she lost to Annie Miller and did not play another professional game until 1997.
Fast forward to 2002 and Williams won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. She defeated her sister Venus in each of these tournaments. Then, in 2003, she won her first Australian Open, making her one of six women in the Australian Open to receive a Career Grand Slam. Serena partnered with her sister Venus to compete in the Olympic doubles matches. There, they won gold at the Beijing Games. Sports fans selected Williams as the greatest female tennis player in the Open Era.
The media has criticized Serena Williams in many different areas of her career and personal life. She has been through many legal trials, some incidents being when a Romanian TV show host called and compared her to a monkey, a journalist discussed her weight and body parts, and Caroline Wozniacki (tennis player) mimicked Williams by stuffing her shirt and skirt with towels. Her other media critiques included questioning her gender. In 2014, the Russian Tennis Federation referred to the Williams sisters as “brothers,” and dozens of tweets called her a “gorilla” or a “man”.
Despite all the media attacks, she has never let it get to her and is still considered one of the greatest female tennis players in all of history. Serena Williams has left a legacy in the world of women’s tennis. No other player can match her perseverance, skill, and sportsmanship. She has broken records that no other tennis player could have. Her legacy will always be remembered, and she continues to inspire others to shape the future of tennis for the better.
