Serena
Posted on March 12, 2009
Filed Under Tennis
From being a timid suburban child in Saginaw, Michigan, Serena Jameka Williams became an outstanding tennis player that currently ranks as the world no.1 by the Women’s Tennis Association as of February 2, 2009. At 27, she holds the current titles of the US Open and Australian Open singles champion, has won 20 Grand Slam titles (10 singles, 8 women’s doubles, 2 mixed doubles) and is considered the most recent tennis player to have held all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously. With all her successes as an athlete, Serena has won more career prize than any other woman athlete in any sport. In the 2005 issue of the Tennis magazine, Serena Williams was named as the 17th best athlete of the preceding years. Along with her female tennis player sibling, Venus Williams, there is more to see for this woman in action.
Serena Williams was born in September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan by parents Richard and Oracene Price Williams. She is the youngest of the five siblings; Lyndrea, Isha, Yetunde and Venus. When the family moved to Los Angeles, Richard has dreamed of making one of his daughters a tennis superstar. Serena, along with her other siblings, was personally coached by parents and began playing tennis at young age and trained at the public courts in Compton, California. She participated in numerous clinics, particularly those that are targeted for at-risk youth. At the age of four and a half, Serena already won her first tournament. By the age of 10, she already participated in 49 tournaments and has won 46 of them.
The Williams children were all homeschooled; their father stopped sending his tennis playing daughters to national junior tournaments, fearing that they would have to deal with racism on the court. Instead, he sent Serena to Rick Macci’s tennis school in Florida, where she trained with Andy Roddick (who Williams actually defeated in a practice match).
Years of constant training have made Serena Williams the almost unbelievably skilled athlete that she is today. She primarily is a baseline player, but she has a very aggressive style which focuses on taking control of rallies, making her a fearsome opponent. Her strokes, whether serves, groundstrokes or returns have a lot of power behind them. She is one of the most powerful servers ever to play the game, with serves often reaching 120 mph (and in Charleston in 2008, she hit record breaking 127 and 129 mph serves). Her return serves are no less impressive – opponents are sometimes simply overpowered by her phenomenal skills, which include the ability to hit flat serves and topspin serves at either corner of the service box.
Aside from her playing style, Serena is also known for her unusual and colorful outfits on court. Her family has opened a clothing line named Aneres. She also made several television and movie appearances. She also posed for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. She eventually made a lucrative career as a product endorser. In May 2004, Serena William’s partnership with Nike debuted custom-designed sports apparel. Serena also received the Celebrity Role Model Award from Avon Foundations in 2003 for her participation in the breast cancer drives. She also had her charities to spend time with off the court. In November 2008, she funded the construction and completion of a secondary school in Kenya.
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