Serena Williams - Tennis Career

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 in Florida 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.

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 at No. 99 in the world.

1998

1998 was the first year that Williams finished in the WTA top 20. She began the season in Sydney as a qualifier, ranked no. 96, and beat world no. 3 Lindsay Davenport in a quarterfinal. With her top 20 ranking, Williams was then expected to do well in her first Grand Slam tournament. However, she lost in the second round of the Australian Open to sister Venus. Williams 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 U.S. $2.6 million in prize money during the year.

1999

In 1999, Serena defeated Amélie Mauresmo in a final the same day that Venus won in Oklahoma City, marking the first time in professional tennis history that two sisters had won titles in the same week.

Ranked number 21, Williams defeated three top 10 players at the Indian Wells tournament: world no. 2 Lindsay Davenport in the second round, world no. 8 Mary Pierce in a quarterfinal, and world no. 7 Steffi Graf in the final.

On September 11, 1999, Williams won her first Grand Slam tournament when she became US Open champion, becoming the first African American woman to win a Grand Slam singles tournament since Althea Gibson in 1958. The next day, she and sister Venus won the doubles championship. She finished 1999 ranked no. 4 in just her third full season.

2000-2002

Williams finished 2001 in the top ten for the third consecutive year. She reached her first Grand Slam singles final in two years, losing to her older sister Venus at the U.S. Open 6-2, 6-4. Later that year, Serena won the WTA Tour Championships after saving eight match points in the semifinals against Jennifer Capriati.

In 2002, Serena won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open (where she wore her famous black catsuit) by defeating Venus in the finals of all three. She also reached the final of the WTA Tour Championships for the second time, where she lost to Kim Clijsters. She finished the year with a 56-5 record, eight singles titles, and the World No. 1 ranking. She also won the Wimbledon doubles title with Venus for the second time.

2003

Williams beat her sister Venus to win the 2003 Australian Open, her fourth straight Grand Slam singles title, becoming only the ninth woman ever to win all four Grand Slam events. She named this feat the "Serena Slam". This was only the sixth time that a woman had held all four of tennis' major championships within 12 months. This accomplishment was also remarkable in that Williams faced off against her sister each time. The Williams sisters are the only two siblings in Grand Slam history to square off in four consecutive finals.

For the first time since January 2002, a Grand Slam final did not read Williams-Williams. Venus lost to Vera Zvonareva in the fourth round of the French Open. Among boos and catcalls, Serena lost to Justine Henin in an acrimonious and controversial semifinal match. With Serena leading 4-2 (30-0), she hit her first serve into the net. Henin had raised her hand during Serena's service motion to indicate to hold the serve, but the chair umpire ruled that Serena should be allowed only a second serve. The crowd then booed and hissed in response to Serena's protests, and continued throughout Williams's service motion. Serena went on to lose the game and eventually the match. In her post-match interview, Serena expressed disappointment in Henin's behavior during the third set incident.

2004-2005

Williams withdrew from the 2004 Australian Open to continue rehabilitating her left knee. After eight months away from the tour, Williams began her comeback in Miami, where she defeated Elena Dementieva in the final 6-1, 6-1. She then lost in the French Open quarterfinals to Jennifer Capriati 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. She reached the final of Wimbledon but lost to the 17-year-old Russian player Maria Sharapova. On July 30, Williams withdrew from her quarterfinal match in San Diego against Russia's Vera Zvonareva with another 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.

At the China Open in Beijing, Williams defeated the newly crowned U.S. Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova, in the final. Williams earned enough points there to reach the WTA Tour Championships, where she again lost to Sharapova in the final. Williams suffered a stomach muscle strain during the match and after leading 4-0 in the third set, lost the next six games. She finished the year ranked number 8 in the world.

Her participation in 2005 Wimbledon ended in the third round when she was beaten by fellow American Jill Craybas (ranked 85th in the world) 6-3, 7-6(4). Williams broke down in tears in the subsequent press conference. She had come into the tournament with a stress fracture in her ankle (which forced her to place extra strain onto her right knee) and a severe lack of conditioning. She also had not played a competitive match for six weeks, missing the French Open.

At the 2005 U.S. Open, Williams made it through the first three rounds but was defeated by her sister Venus in the fourth round 7-6, 6-2. This was the earliest the two sisters had met in a Grand Slam tournament since their first meeting at the 1998 Australian Open.

2006

Williams went into the Australian Open with no warm-up tournaments or exhibitions due to injury, except for a 6-3, 6-1 loss to Elena Dementieva at the Watsons Water Challenge in Hong Kong. Williams was the defending champion at the Australian Open but fell to Daniela Hantuchová 6-1, 7-6(7-5) in the third round. In earlier rounds, Williams defeated Na Li of China (6-3, 6-7, 6-2) and Camille Pin of France (6-3, 6-1). Her early exit provoked media reports that Williams had lost her enthusiasm for the sport, which she denied. She then fell out of the top 50 for the first time in many years. She then pulled out of the Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open, and the Nasdaq 100 Open.

After withdrawing from the Charleston, South Carolina Family Circle Cup, Williams fell out of the top-100 players in the world for the first time in almost a decade. Shortly after, on May 3, she announced that she would miss both the French Open and Wimbledon as a result of her nagging chronic knee injury. She revealed that she would not be able to compete before "the end of the summer," on doctors' orders.

Ranked No. 139 due to her inactivity, Williams made a successful comeback by defeating the Cincinnati tournament's No. 2 seed and No. 11-ranked Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-2, in the first round. She then defeated Bethanie Mattek 6-3, 6-1 and Amy Frazier 6-2, 6-2 before losing to a resurgent and the eventual champion Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-3 in a semifinal. Williams ranking rose to No. 108 as a result of this tournament.

Williams was granted a wildcard into the US Open, as her ranking prevented her from gaining direct entry into the tournament. She was ranked 79th in the main draw and was unseeded in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 1998. Williams lost to Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round 6-4, 0-6,6-2.

2007

Williams began the year by stating that she had no doubt she would be number one again. She competed in the Moorilla Hobart International in Tasmania as a warm-up for the 2007 Australian Open.

At the Australian Open, the unseeded Williams defeated fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia in the third round 1-6, 7-5, 6-3. It was Williams's first win over a top 10 player since her defeat of Lindsay Davenport in the 2005 Australian Open final. In the fourth round, Williams defeated the eleventh-seeded Jelena Janković of Serbia 6-3, 6-2. She then defeated sixteenth-seeded Shahar Peer in the quarterfinals 3-6, 6-2, 8-6 and tenth-seeded Nicole Vaidišová 7-6(5), 6-4 in the semifinals. In the final, Williams defeated top-seeded and then second ranked Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes to take her third Australian Open singles title and her eighth Grand Slam singles title. The victory elevated her ranking from 81st to 14th in the world and it also marked the first time either Williams sister had won a Grand Slam singles title in the absence of the other's participation in the same tournament.

Williams then withdrew from her next two scheduled tournaments in February, the Sony Ericsson International in Bangalore, India and the Dubai Tennis Championships. She stated that she was unable to play either event because of the flu.

Williams played the first round Fed Cup tie against Belgium in Delray Beach, Florida. She defeated Caroline Maes 6-1, 6-4. She then withdrew from the second rubber to rest her knee. In the fourth round of the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia tournament in Rome, Italy, Williams defeated eleventh-seeded Peer 6-3, 6-3. In the quarterfinals, Williams lost to fourteenth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5). After the tournament, however, she reentered the Top 10, moving up to number 9.

At the ongoing French Open, Williams defeated Michaella Krajicek in the third round 6-3, 6-4, defeated tenth-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in the fourth round. On June 5, she lost the much anticipated quarterfinal against Justine Henin with 6-4, 6-3. The one-sided nature of her match against the French-speaking Belgian meant the crowd which booed her so mercilessly when she and Henin met in the 2003 semi-finals could barely manage a peep. She was booed only once, for a petulant smash of her racket, and it seemed little more than a token gesture. Henin dominated the match, but Serena dismissed the defeat saying, "I sat back and let her attack me, and now I feel violated".