Serena Williams
For many people, Serena Williams might just be the best player to play the game. Nobody has been so dominant for so long, having essentially tied up the WTA program for a large portion of her career. While Serena might be in her mid-30s now, she’s still going strong and offers all the proof that one would need to deem her at the very top of the sport.
With a whopping 72 career singles titles, Serena has shown herself to be among the very best of all time. Add in her 23 double titles, too, and you have an even more impressive career history. With 783 professional single wins, too, she’s one of the most prolific winners in the history of the sport. The Saginaw-born superstar has gone on to become one of the most prominent tennis stars of not just her own era, but any era.
Ever since the age of 3, the sport of tennis and Serena Williams have been intertwined. An incredible competitor who has been used to intense training since she was a toddler, Williams lifted her first major trophy just four years into her career and has since set the record as one of the most impressive and enigmatic players around.
Making her pro debut in 1995, Williams went on to secure herself a start in the sport that she has gone on to dominate. By 1997, she finished in the Top 100 and even beat two Top 10 players in the one event when ranked a whopping #304!
With 23 Grand Slams in her stellar career, her latest being the Australian Open, she surpassed the record of the great Steffi Graf, ensuring that she captured that Global #1 spot once again.
Indeed, the only major blemish on her career record came in 2012, when she fell at the first round of the French Open – her first and so far only exit at such a stage in her career in a major event. However, she made up for this by claiming the 2012 Wimbledon final, making it her first major after a comparatively long two-year drought.
She also lifted a Gold Medal at the 2012 Olympics, defeating Russian superstar Maria Sharapova to do so. She won her fourth Olympic Gold Medal alongside sister Venus when they defeated the Czech Republic in a Doubles match to lift Gold once again.
Williams is a very impressive person off the court, too. Engaged to Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, she’s likely to expect her first child, too!
Her relationship with her sister has always been one of the most endearing parts of her career, too. They lived together for many years until they stopped doing so in 2013. The two sisters remain close despite their numerous battles against each other on the court, having both reached the very pinnacle of the sport.
She even runs her own clothing line, and was once in The Simpsons, voicing her own character. A true legend of sport in general, Serena Williams will surely go down as one of the true legends to have stood on the court.
