Serena Williams: Career retrospective

Serena and her sister Venus began playing tennis in Compton when Serena, the youngest sister, was only four. Eventually the family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida so that the sisters could attend a prestigious tennis academy. In time, their father Richard, a controversial figure, would take over as their coach. Serena would make her professional debut at the Bell Classic in October 1995, when she was only 14 years old. She lost in the first round.

Williams played no professional tennis in 1996, but returned in 1997. After losing a few qualifying tournaments, Serena picked up her first wins at the Ameritech Cup. They weren’t run-of-the-mill wins, either. Williams beat seventh-ranked Mary Pierce and fourth-ranked Monica Seles before losing to fifth-ranked Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals.

Venus and Serena are the most-dominant duo in women’s doubles tennis history, a doubles win ended up being Serena’s first title. The two won a tournament in Oklahoma City in 1998, and then won two more doubles tourneys that year.

Of course, Serena wanted more than doubles success. In 1999, she would finally do it. Williams beat Amelie Mauresmo to win the Open Gaz de Paris. Not long after that, Serena and Venus would face off in the finals of the Miami Masters, the first of many instances of the two squaring off for a title.

Serena was just getting started in 1999. Later that year, she would beat top-ranked Martina Hingis in the finals of the U.S. Open, her first victory in a Grand Slam tournament. She became the second-ever African American to win a Gram Slam after Althea Gibson in 1958.

That first Grand Slam title would be only of many to come. Serena had to withdraw during the 2002 Australian Open due to injury, but then proceeded to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open that year. When Williams opened 2003 by winning the Australian Open, she was the reigning champion of all four Grand Slam tournaments. Much like Tiger Woods’ “Tiger Slam,” this became known as the “Serena Slam.”

Late in 2003, Serena had to have knee surgery, which kept her out of action for eight months. It did not take her long to find her footing, though. In her first tournament back, the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami, Williams was victorious, her third year in a row winning the event.

Winning the NASDAQ-100 was one thing, but Serena was not able to win a Grand Slam in 2004, her first year without a victory in one of the big four tournaments since 2001. She quickly amended that at the 2005 Australian Open, taking home her second victory at the tourney, and her seven Grand Slam overall.

After the Australian Open win, 2005 didn’t go great for Serena, who finished ranked outside the top 10 for the first time since 1998. Then, 2006 went even worse. After playing in the Australian Open, Serena said she was dealing with an injury. In her later autobiography, Williams said she was actually dealing with depression. Serena did not play for six months, falling to 139th in the rankings. Eventually, she would return to play in a couple tournaments, including the U.S. Open, but did not win a title. When the year ended, she was ranked 95th.

When 2007 began, Williams did not quite feel like she was up to her usual standards. After losing in the third round of a warm-up tournament for the Australian Open, there was a lot of skepticism. And yet, Serena defied the odds, beating the rising star Maria Sharapova to win the Grand Slam for the third time and to rise to 14th in the rankings.

This began the rise to glory for Serena once again. Fittingly enough, it was two years later – at the 2009 Australian Open – that Williams would win the tournament once again, this time returning her to being the top-ranked women’s tennis place once more.

Things would be up and down in 2010 again, as Williams was only able to play in six singles tournaments, which led to her finishing the year ranked fourth. Injuries were a problem. Serena reportedly stepped on broken glass in July, and in March of the next year said she had suffered a hematoma and a pulmonary embolism. She returned in 2011, once again playing in six tournaments, but making it to the U.S. Open Final.

Serena had participated in the Olympics before the 2012 games held in London. However, her medals had come in doubles, where she participated with her sister. The 2012 Olympics were a different story. Serena won gold both as a singles and doubles player.

2013 proved a big year for Serena, then again most years have proven big for her. In addition to reclaiming the number-one ranking, making her the oldest player to do so, she won her second-ever French Open. This gave her the career “Golden Slam,” which means having won every Grand Slam tournament at least twice. Only four women have done that in the Open Era.

Once more, with feeling. For the second time in his career, Williams found herself the reigning champ at all four Grand Slam tournaments. She did it a little differently this time. Serena won the final Grand Slam of 2014, the U.S. Open, then won the other three in 2015.

On September 6th of 2016, Serena was the top-ranked women’s player. This marked the 186th week in a row this was the case. That tied Steffi Graf for the longest streak in women’s tennis history. Alas, she could not secure the record for herself. Williams lost in the semifinals of the 2016 U.S. Open, while second-ranked Angelique Kerber won the tourney. This led to Kerber leaping over Williams for the number-one spot.

Losing the top ranking didn’t deter Williams. In 2017, she kicked off the year by winning yet another Australian Open. This was her 23rd Grand Slam title. This helped Serena surpass Graf’s record this time, as no women’s player has won more Grand Slams in the Open Era.

That Australian Open victory? It turns out Williams did that while two-months pregnant. We didn’t know that at the time, but could backtrack once Serena announced she was 20 weeks pregnant and would miss the rest of the season. She boldly claimed she would be back for the 2018 Australian Open after giving birth.

While Serena gave birth to a healthy baby girl, unfortunately it was not a smooth pregnancy for her. Williams suffered another pulmonary embolism which left her stuck in bed for six weeks. While Williams played an exhibition match in December of 2017, a mere few months after giving birth, she had to skip the Australian Open. Soon enough, Williams would be in the swing of things and made it all the way to the Wimbledon finals before losing to Kerber. Serena would then make it to the U.S. Open finals as well. This was the infamous matchup with Naomi Osaka where Williams was penalized a point for breaking her racket and penalized a game for verbal abuse of the chair umpire.

While Williams had success in 2018 and 2019, she was unable to win a single tournament. Finally, at the 2020 ASB Classic, Serena was able to secure a tourney victory. This was her first tournament win since giving birth.

Despite being one of the oldest players on tour, Serena is still at it. Even in the pandemic-stricken 2020 campaign, Williams has found some success. When she made it to the semifinals of the U.S. Open, she became the first player to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam in four different decades.

Even if Serena never wins another Grand Slam, or another tournament, her legacy is unparalleled. Her 23 Grand Slams are an Open Era record, and honestly who cares if she never beats Margaret Court’s overall record of 24? The Australian racked up 11 Australian Open titles at a time when many of the best players weren’t participating Down Under. Serena has added 14 Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister Venus, whom she has squared off with for several singles Grand Slam titles. Her legacy is established. If you want to make an argument that any woman has ever been better at tennis than Serena Williams, it’s going to be a hard argument to make.