Serena Williams Biography

Tennis Player

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Serena Williams and her sister Venus became stars of women's tennis in the late 1990s and have dominated the pro tour for many of the years since. The sisters are African-Americans, which was a rarity in pro tennis when they started in the 1990s. Serena quickly became known for her powerful game, tough determination, and flashy fashion sense. Like Tiger Woods, Serena was a child prodigy who began playing her chosen game before kindergarten. Serena is a year younger than Venus and (at 5'10") about three inches shorter, but she became the first sister to win a major tournament by claiming the singles title at the 1999 U.S. Open. Serena went on to eclipse Venus as the dominant women's tennis player of the early 2000s; in 2002-03 she won the "Serena Slam" by holding all four grand slam titles at once: the 2002 French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles, and the 2003 Australian Open. Her other major titles are Wimbledon in 2003 and 2009, the Australian Open in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010, and the U.S. Open in 2008.

Extra credit: Other women's tennis stars of Williams' era include Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Anna Kournikova, Monica Seles and Amanda Coetzer.

Serena and Venus Williams join tennis pioneer Althea Gibson in our special loop on Black History.

Williams also joins Cheryl Tiegs in our loop on Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models.

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