Serena Williams
Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan (September 26, 1981) to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. Serena Williams is of African American heritage and is the youngest of Price’s five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (1972–2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and full sister Venus. When the children were young, the family moved to the city of Compton in Los Angeles county, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of five. Serena Williams father home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus and to this day, Serena Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.
Williams’ family moved from Compton to Haines City when Serena Williams was nine so that she could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who would provide additional coaching. Macci spotted the exceptional talents of the sisters. He did not always agree with Williams’ father but respected that “he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls”. Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Williams was 10, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another motivation was racial, as he had allegedly heard parents of white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments. At that time, Williams had a 46–3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among under 10 players in Florida.In 1995, when Serena was in the ninth grade, Richard pulled his daughters out of Macci’s academy, and from then on took over all coaching at their home. When asked in 2000 whether having followed the normal path of playing regularly on the junior circuit would have been beneficial, Williams responded: “Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just tried a different road, and it worked for us.”
Serena Williams Career
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Serena Williams became the World No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009. She is considered to be one of the greatest women’s tennis players of all-time in a career hampered by numerous injuries.
Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. Serena Williams is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so. Her 13 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list. Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women’s singles titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each). Serena Williams has won more Grand Slam titles in singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles than any other active female player.
Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women’s doubles. Serena Williams has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history.Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. They have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together.
Serena Williams accident
Serena Williams
A grateful Serena Williams realizes just how close she came to losing her tennis career because of blood clots in both lungs.
“A lot of people die from that because you don’t recognize it,” the 13-time Grand Slam champion said Monday, a day before returning to action at the Eastbourne International after nearly a year away from competition.
“They (the doctors) just said it could have gotten a lot more serious a day later or two days later. It could have possibly been career-ending, but for the grace of God I got there in time and I was able to recover from it.”
“My coach, he took his phone, he looked down and there’s like this massive puddle of blood. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,”’ she said. “I ended up fainting because I lost so much blood.”
The ligament damage to her foot required two bouts of surgery, 10 weeks in plaster and 10 weeks in a protective boot.
“I was debating whether I’d rather be in jail for 20 weeks or a cast, and I was leaning towards jail because I really hated that cast,” she said. “Mentally that was one of the toughest things for me.”
But then in February, she had trouble breathing.
“I always use the word ‘blessed.’ I had great people around me,” she said. “My (trainer) forced me to go to the hospital, whereas I was actually on the way to a party, to be quite honest. She’s like, ‘No, you need to go to the hospital.’
“Glad I didn’t go to that party.”
Finally fit, she joined sister Venus in entering Eastbourne, breaking with their normal tradition of preparing for Wimbledon at home in Florida. Serena’s statement last week confirming her long-awaited return ended with the words: “Serena’s back!”
She was immediately installed as one of the favorites for Wimbledon, despite her lack of preparation.
Women’s tennis has struggled to fill the void left by the sisters. In Serena’s absence, Caroline Wozniacki has taken the No. 1 ranking, but the 20-year-old Dane has struggled to justify that status without a grand slam title to her name. Compelling rivalries and story lines are lacking.
“We’ve missed tennis so much,” Serena said. “If tennis has missed us half as much as we have missed tennis, we’re in a good place.”
Venus returned with a three-set win over eighth-seeded Andrea Petkovic on Monday. Serena looks to follow her sister into the second round when she faces Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria on Tuesday.
The younger sister is adamant that while the experience of a potentially career-ending illness means she’s no longer “taking things for granted,” she isn’t coming back to play for fun.
“My attitude hasn’t changed. I still cracked a couple of rackets in practice,” she said. “But that’s good. That just still makes me feel like I have that desire, and I have that insatiable, just innate thing inside me that I just want everything and I just want to win.”
Williams wouldn’t say whether winning a fifth Wimbledon title in three weeks’ time was a realistic aim, although she is hoping to peak in the second week and take it from there.
“I’m not preparing for today or Wimbledon,” she said. “I’m preparing for the rest of my career.”
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