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Serena Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) placed her as the world No. 1 in women’s singles for 319 weeks (the third-longest streak in history), and she closed the year as No. 1 five times.

Williams has won 73 WTA Tour-level singles titles, including 23 major women’s singles titles—the most in the Open Era and the second-most all-time. She is the only player to have completed a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.

Williams is regarded as one of the most accomplished female tennis players of all time. Many players, analysts, and sportswriters consider Williams the greatest female tennis player of all time.

Serena Williams, according to Roger Federer has the finest case for “Greatest Of All Time” status, man or woman. In 2022, John McEnroe called Williams an “icon” and the “GOAT of GOATs”.

Williams has received the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year an unprecedented four times (2003, 2010, 2016, 2018). In 2017, BBC Sport users voted Williams the best female tennis player of the Open Era.

In 2018, a Tennis.com panel reached the same decision. In December 2019, the Associated Press named her the Female Athlete of the Decade for the 2010s. In 2020, the Tennis Channel named Williams the greatest female tennis player in history.

In 2024, the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) named her the finest female athlete of the past century. In December 2025, The Sporting News recognised her as the sixth-greatest athlete of the last quarter-century and the highest-ranked tennis player. She is the highest-paid female athlete of all time.

Serena Williams Biography

Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, to Oracene Price and Richard Williams. She is the youngest of Price’s five daughters, following half-sisters Yetunde, Lyndrea, and Isha Price and full sister Venus. She has at least seven paternal half-siblings.

Richard relocated the family to Compton, California while Serena and Venus were little, despite his wife’s misgivings. Richard had researched sports success stories and believed that the harsh environment of Compton would toughen Serena and Venus in preparation for their future tennis careers.

Serena Williams Education

Richard homeschooled Serena and Venus, and Serena began playing tennis at the age of four. Serena’s parents have been her formal coaches, but she has also had mentors like Richard Williams, a Compton man who shares her father’s name and founded The Venus and Serena Williams Tennis Tutorial Academy.

When Williams was nine, the family relocated from Compton to West Palm Beach, Florida, so that Serena and Venus could attend Rick Macci’s tennis academy, where she received more coaching.

When Williams was in ninth grade, her father pulled his children from Macci’s program and took over all coaching at home.

Career

Serena Williams turned professional in 1995, a year after her older sister. They quickly became well-known for their powerful serves and ground strokes, as well as their exceptional athleticism. Many anticipated Venus would be the first Williams sister to win a Grand Slam singles championship, but Serena did so in 1999 at the US Open.

The sisters won the doubles event at that tournament, and they went on to win 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together throughout their careers.

Serena and Venus Williams won gold medals in doubles at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Serena Williams asserted herself in 2002 by winning the French Open, Wimbledon, and the United States Open, defeating Venus Williams in the finals of all three tournaments.

Serena Williams drew attention at the latter tournament when she wore a catsuit. Williams, who has always been interested in fashion, rose to prominence for her daring clothes that showcased her powerful figure while challenging the sport’s traditional—and often conservative—dress codes.

With her characteristic persistence, Williams won the Australian Open in 2003, completing a career Grand Slam by winning all four component tournaments. Later that year, she also won Wimbledon; both of her Grand Slam victories in 2003 happened after she defeated her sister in the final.

Williams repeated her Australian Open victory in 2005. She won her third Australian Open in 2007, after being out the previous year due to injuries. Serena and Venus Williams won their second gold medal in doubles tennis at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Later that year, Serena Williams won the United States Open for the third time.

In 2009, she won her 10th Grand Slam singles championship at the Australian Open. Later that year, she won her third Wimbledon singles title by defeating her sister. Williams successfully defended her championships at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2010.

She then battled a variety of health difficulties that kept her off the court for nearly a year. In 2012, Williams won her fifth Wimbledon singles title. A month later, at the London Olympics, she won a gold medal in the singles tournament, becoming the second woman (after Steffi Graf) to complete a career Golden Slam.

In addition, she and her sister won the doubles event. Later that year, Williams won her 15th Grand Slam singles championship at the United States Open. In 2013, she won her second French Open singles title and fifth US Open singles crown.

Williams successfully defended her U.S. Open title in 2014, giving her 18 career Grand Slam victories, tying her with Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the second most women’s singles wins in the open era.

The following year, she won her sixth Australian Open. Williams then won the 2015 French Open, her 20th Grand Slam singles title. She extended her winning streak at Wimbledon, winning a straight-set final to claim her sixth Wimbledon singles title.

Williams won Wimbledon again in 2016, bringing her total to 22 career Grand Slam singles trophies, tying Graf for the most Slams in the open era for both men and women.

Williams broke Graf’s record at the 2017 Australian Open, defeating her sister in the final. (In 2023, Novak Djokovic won his 24th major victory, setting a record for men in the open era).

Williams confirmed in April 2017 that she was pregnant (she had proposed to Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of the website Reddit, in December 2016) and would miss the rest of the 2017 season.

In September, she gave birth to a daughter and married Ohanian two months later. Williams returned to tennis in March 2018. She did not win any tournaments that year, but she did reach the finals at Wimbledon and the United States Open.

The latter loss was contentious, as Williams was penalised a game for arguing with the chair umpire about a code violation. In 2019, she was defeated in the finals of Wimbledon and the United States Open. At the 2020 ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, Williams won her first singles event in some three years.

Williams advanced to the semifinals of the 2021 Australian Open, but lost to Naomi Osaka. Later that year, she had to withdraw from both Wimbledon and the United States.

Open due to injury. After missing the first half of the 2022 season, Williams competed at Wimbledon but was eliminated in the first round. She later spoke with Vogue magazine and said that she would be retiring after the upcoming US Open.

Williams, who was already well-known for wearing unique and daring ensembles on the tennis court, expanded her fashion horizons later in her career. In 2012, she became the first Black female athlete to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine.

In 2019, she hosted the Met Gala, and the following year she launched S by Serena, a fashion line that was cancelled four years later. In 2024, she founded WYN Beauty, a makeup brand. Outside of fashion, she runs the venture capital firm Serena Ventures, which was founded in 2014.

In 2011, Williams was named a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Serena and Venus Williams established the Yetunde Price Resource Center in Compton in 2018 to give mental health support and other services to victims of crime and the local community.

The center is named after their half-sister, who was killed in 2003. Serena Williams’ autobiography, On the Line (co-written with Daniel Paisner), was published in 2009.

Serena Williams Husband

Williams is married to Alexis Ohanian, Reddit’s co-founder. He proposed to her on December 10, 2016, and the two married on November 16, 2017, in New Orleans.

Celebrities including Beyoncé, Anna Wintour, Kelly Rowland, and Kim Kardashian attended their wedding ceremony.

On September 1, 2017, Williams gave birth to a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. The kid, who goes by the name “Olympia,” was born via emergency caesarean section after her heart rate fell during labour.

The couple has two daughters: Alexis Olympia Ohanian (born 2017) and Adira River Ohanian (born 2023).

Serena Williams Net Worth

Serena Williams’ net worth is expected to reach $340 million. Her riches stem primarily from her great tennis career, which netted her approximately $95 million in prize money, as well as lucrative endorsement deals and commercial enterprises.

Social Media

Instagram: @serenawilliams