The Evolution of Serena Williams [UPDATE]

Serena Williams was born on September 26, 1981 to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is the youngest of five girls. Serena began playing tennis at the age of four, learning from her father, Richard. She started professional career one year after her sister, Venus, in 1995.

Serena won her first Grand Slam at the age of 17 at the 1999 US Open. She defeated Martina Hingis, a very dominant world No. 1, 6–3, 7–6 (7–4) and very loudly announced herself to the tennis world. It’s a poetic full circle moment that she will complete her groundbreaking career at the same place where it took off.

She won gold in the Sydney Australia 2000 Olympic games. She went on to win the 2002 French Open, 2002 U.S. Open, 2002 Wimbledon, and the 2003 Australian Open (beating her sister). This feat is called the Serena Slam as she obtained four major singles titles in a row.

Serena and Venus’ careers will forever be linked, not that these two sisters mind being considered a package deal. However, no matter how many times they told the press how much they loved and rooted for one another, tennis media spent a lot of time trying to manufacture a feud between them. If one of them is playing, the camera is permanently set up in front of the other. Once the pair got into their 30s, the sports world seemed to finally respect their sisterly bond and just let them support each other.

The tennis pro won the Australian Open again in 2005. However, from 2005-2010 Serena continued snatching titles while simultaneously battling injuries, constantly having to reassure her fans and haters that her career was not in trouble.

The tennis world desperately wanted a rivalry between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. They painted Maria as a Russian blond bombshell whose beauty was supposed to intimidate Serena. The problem with this is, one: Serena is a gorgeous badass who doesn’t have time for your racist bullshit and two: she beat Maria damn near every time they played. Seriously, her record against Sharapova was 20-2. As the Russian admitted herself, “it’s not really a rivalry.”

In 2012 Serena won gold at the London Olympics, shortly after winning her fifth Wimbledon title. At the time she was the only woman to have earned the Gold Slam. She celebrated this title by doing the Crip-walk on the court, a dance that caused controversy and called “inappropriate” by the tennis community.

Serena defeated Venus in the Australian Open singles match in January 2017, marking her 23rd career Grand Slam. Only a few months later in April Serena accidentally posted a picture of her pregnant belly revealing that she was pregnant during her historic match against her sister.

Williams announced in April 2017 that she would be taking off the rest of the season due to her pregnancy. At the time she was engaged to Reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. They were married shortly after she gave birth in September 2017.

In a mini doc series called Being Serena, Williams recounted the day she gave birth to her daughter, Olympia. She had an emergency C-section that was successful, but only hours after the procedure, Williams almost died. She suffered from a pulmonary embolism. Her birthing story sparked conversation about Black women maternal mortality, due her having to advocated for herself in the operating room.

Because of her health struggle with blood clots, Williams debuted a sleek, black catsuit at the 2018 French Open. The suit was useful because it helped keep the blood circulating throughout her body. However, the catsuit and outfits like it were banned as French Open officials thought it was too sexy for the tennis court. This started a conversation on how women athletes constantly have their bodies policed by male dominated boards and committees. Once again, Serena changed the tennis world just by being herself.

King Richard, the story of the Williams sister’s father’s journey to becoming their first coach was released in 2021. Will Smith portrayed Richard and won Best Actor at the 2022 Academy Awards (the same night as the Oscar slap) for his role.

As the four-time Olympic gold medalist began to think about her post-tennis life, she realized there was a space that needed her voice in the venture capital world, so she started Serena Ventures. In her retirement article in Vogue, Serena noted how when she found out 98 percent of VC money went to men, she knew she needed to take action. “Someone who looks like me needs to start writing the big checks…in order for us to change that, more people who look like me need to be in that position, giving money back to themselves,” she said.

In an interview with Vogue, Serena announced that she would be fading out of her tennis career. She admits in the interview that she does not take the retirement subject lightly as tennis has been her whole life, but she knows that it is now time for her to evolve into a new person. Her main reason? She wants to expand her family