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Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American
professional women's tennis player, who is a former World No. 1 of the Women's
Tennis Association (WTA). She is the younger sister of another female tennis
champion, Venus Williams. She currently resides in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida,
United States.
Early life
Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan. When she and
her four sisters were young, their parents, Richard and Oracene (also called
Brandy), took them to the poor and sometimes violent Los Angeles suburb of
Compton. Her father dreamed of making at least one of his daughters a tennis
superstar, hoping that involvement in sports would give them a way out of
that neighborhood.
When Serena was four and a half, she won her first tournament,
and she entered 49 tournaments before the age of 10, winning 46 of them.
At one point, she replaced sister Venus as the number one ranked tennis player
aged 12 or under in California.
1991-1997
In 1991, Richard Williams, saying that he hoped to prevent
his daughters from facing racism, stopped sending them to national junior
tennis tournaments, and Serena attended a tennis school run by professional
player Rick Macci instead. Macci had already helped the careers of Jennifer
Capriati and Mary Pierce, among others. Soon Richard, who had struck a deal
on behalf of his daughters with a major clothing company, was able to move
the rest of the Williams family to West Palm Beach, to be near Serena and
Venus.
Serena became a professional in September 1995 at the age
of 14. Because of her age, she had to participate in non-WTA events at first.
Her first professional event was the Bell Challenge in Quebec, and she was
ousted in less than an hour of play.
By 1997, ranked number 304 in the world, she upset both Monica
Seles and Mary Pierce at the Ameritech Open in Chicago, Illinois, recording
her first career wins over top 10 players. She finished 1997 in the top 100
at no. 99.
1998
1998 was the first year when she finished in the WTA top
20. She began the season in Sydney as a qualifier, ranked no. 96, and she
beat world no. 3 Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinal. Serena, with her
top 20 ranking, was then expected to do well in her first Grand Slam tournament,
but she lost in the second round of the Australian Open to sister Venus.
Serena reached six other quarterfinals during the season.
She won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon and US Open with Max Mirnyi,
completing the Williams family's sweep of the 1998 mixed doubles Grand Slams.
Sister Venus also won the mixed doubles at the Australian Open and the French
Open with Justin Gimelstob. She won her first pro title in doubles at Oklahoma
City with sister Venus becoming the third pair of sisters to win a WTA tour
women's doubles title. She earned 2.6 million dollars in the season.
1999
In 1999, Serena was ranked number 21, and she and sister
Venus had become celebrities. She defeated Amélie Mauresmo in a final
the same day that Venus won in Oklahoma City, marking first time in professional
tennis history that two sisters had won titles in the same week.
Ranked number 21, she defeated 3 top 10 players: world no.
2 Lindsay Davenport in the second round, world no. 8 Mary Pierce in the quarterfinal,
and world no. 7 Steffi Graf in the final at Indian Wells.
Serena has been the focus of many ad campaigns, including
one with shoe and clothes maker PUMA, which signed her to a $12 million agreement.
On September 11, 1999, Serena won her first Grand Slam tournament
when she became US Open champion, becoming the first African American woman
to win a Grand Slam tournament since Althea Gibson in 1958. The next day,
she and sister Venus won the doubles championship at the same tournament.
She finished 1999 ranked no. 4 in just her third full season.
2000-2002
In 2000, she won the doubles gold medal at the Olympics with
sister Venus. 2001 was the third consecutive year in which she finished in
the top 10 reaching her first Grand Slam singles final in two years. In 2002,
she won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She finished the year
with a 56-5 record and 8 titles, arguably becoming the most dominant female
in Tennis at the time. She also stayed number one for a year and during that
year won 5 of her 7 Grand Slam Titles. She also reached the final of the
WTA tour championships for a second time before losing to Kim Clijsters.
She also won the Wimbledon doubles title with her sister Venus for the second
time.
2003
She won the Australian Open in 2003, her fourth straight
Grand Slam singles title, becoming only the ninth woman ever to win all four
Grand Slam events. Her accomplishment was dubbed the Serena Slam.
For the first time since January 2002, the Grand Slam final
did not read Williams-Williams at the French Open in June 2003. Venus lost
to Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round of the French Open. Among boos and
catcalls, Serena lost to Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium in an acrimonious
and controversial semi-final match. With Serena leading 4-2 at 30-love, Henin-Hardenne
backed away from her position, just as Serena was about to serve at a critical
point in the match. The serve went long, and the umpire called for a second
serve. When Serena pointed out that Justine had indicated she was not ready,
Justine refused to answer the umpire, turning her back to him and pretending
not to hear him. After a futile exchange with the umpire which turned the
crowd against her, Serena lost the game, the lead and went on to lose the
match. This was widely dubbed as the most controversial women's match in
French Open history.
At Wimbledon in 2003, Serena Williams became back-to-back
champion, exacting revenge on Henin-Hardenne in straight set in the semifinals
and her sister Venus in the finals by a score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Serena beat her sister Venus to win the Australian Open in
2003. This was only the sixth time a woman has held all four of tennis' major
championships within 12 months. This accomplishment was also remarkable in
that Serena had to beat her sister each time. The Williams siblings are the
first two women in Grand Slam history to square off in five consecutive finals.
Williams' older sister, Yetunde Price, was murdered on the
morning of September 14, 2003, by gunshots as she passed by in a car driven
by a man in the Compton area.
2004-2005
Serena withdrew from Australian Open 2004 to continue rehabilitating
her left knee. She reached the final of Wimbledon once again, but lost to
the 17-year-old Russian player Maria Sharapova. On July 30, Serena withdrew
from her quarterfinal match against Russia's Vera Zvonareva with a left knee
injury. On August 1, she announced her withdrawal from the Rogers Cup due
to the same injury. The injury also forced her to pull out of the 2004 Summer
Olympics.
Controversy has arisen over Williams's level of dedication
to the sport. Some believe that she is far too concerned with her fashion
and acting careers and has not focused enough recently on her tennis. Disappointing
performances during 2004 have been cited as proof of this lack of focus.
However, in 2005, she won her seventh Grand Slam event, winning the Australian
Open. She defeated the three of the tournament's top 4 seeds, #2 Amelie Mauresmo,
#4 Maria Sharapova and #1 Lindsay Davenport, en route to the title.
Her participation in Wimbledon 2005 ended in the third round
when she was beaten by fellow American Jill Craybas (ranked 85th in the world)
6-3, 7-6(4). Serena broke down in tears in the subsequent press conference.
She had come into the tournament with an stress fracture in her ankle(which
forced her to place extra strain onto her right knee when she forced herself
to attempt to train for Fed cup and then Wimbledon) a severe lack of conditioning,
and had not played a competitive match for six weeks, missing the French
Open.
As Serena slumped in the tournament, Venus progressed, defeating
top-seeded Lindsay Davenport in the 2005 Wimbledon final. Venus admitted
later that she emulated Serena's never-say-die spirit, and this attitude
led her Wimbledon victory.
At the 2005 U.S. Open, Serena made it through the first three
rounds, but was defeated by her sister Venus in the 4th round, 7-6, 6-2.
This was the earliest that the two sisters had met in a grand slam since
the 1999 Australian Open, due to their low seeds.
Serena then was forced to take a break for the rest of 2005
because of ankle and knee injuries. When she returns, it is speculated that
she will in fact be in good physical shape and ready to dominate once more
on the WTA Tour. Other critics say that this will be another "lackluster"
year for Williams. Despite this Williams has made at least one grand slam
final every year since 2001.
In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 17th place in its list
of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
In early 2006 in her preparation for the Australian Open,
she arrived in Australia noticeably heavier than her reported weight of 61kg.
In the Australian Open 2006, she lost 6-1, 7-6(7-5) to Daniela
Hantuchova in the 3rd round.
2006
Serena went into the Australian Open with no warm-up tournaments
or exhibitions due to injury. Serena was the defending champion at the Australian
Open but failed to defend her title after falling to Daniela Hantuchova 6-1
7-6(7-5) in the third round. In earlier rounds, Serena defeated Na Li of
China (6-3 6-7 6-2) and Camille Pin of France (6-3 6-1).
Fashion
Serena is also known for her unusual and colorful outfits
on court. During her first years on tour, she and Venus came on scene with
beads in their hair. As the year went on, more specifically in 2000, Serena
made her first appearance on court without them, during the tournament in
Hannover. When asked if she would return with the famous beads, she said
she didn't know. In 2002, Serena created an on-court stir when she came wearing
a leather-looking catsuit at the US Open Grand Slam. Again at the US Open,
in 2004, Serena came wearing denim skirts and boots. Serena had a special
line at Puma and has a current one at Nike. Serena and her sister have always
been in the spotlight of the media, every time they came on court, because
of their innovative outfits.
Outside the tennis courts, Williams was also the center of
attention when on November 2004, she reached a new level of exposure at the
London premiere of Pierce Brosnan's new film, After the Sunset. In an outfit
that had a near-topless effect, Williams wore a red gown with strips of sheer
fabric that revealed more than just cleavage.
Williams has her own line of designer clothing called Aneres - her
first name spelled backward - that she plans to sell in boutiques in Miami
and Los Angeles. Venus also appeared as one of her models, showing her latest
designs.
Entertainment
In April 2005, MTV announced plans to broadcast a reality
show around the lives of Serena and Venus Williams, but ABCFamily currently
airs the show. Williams becomes the seventh star ever to be on Punk'd more
than twice. Her first appearence was when Willams have to save a Punk'd problem
kid played by Rob Pinkston until Kutcher exposed the set-up. Her second is
when Serena passed the prank on her sister Venus after both Serena and Venus
were fighting with a fraud during a photoshoot with some handicapped people.
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