A dive into the life and journey of tennis maverick and legend, Serena Williams.
By Stuti Kute
At the turn of the millennium, millions around the world sat in front of their television and saw a young, African-American woman make history in tennis. Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam against Amélie Mauresmo in February of 1999 in Paris and just a month later, she won the WTA final against Steffi Graff at the Evert Cup in California. This was just the beginning of her professional accolades at the international level, but her journey in tennis began much earlier.
Sometimes a person is made for their sport, and Williams was no exception. Born in Michigan in 1981, her parents moved their family of six girls to Compton, California, to ensure opportunities for them. Richard Williams and Oracene Price, father and mother to two tennis champions: Serena and Venus, were no ordinary people. Seeing the girls’ interest and that initial spark, the pair put their life savings into getting them access to good courts and training. Coming from Compton, a crime-ridden neighbourhood, the family faced discrimination in the world of elite, upper-class club people who were all predominantly white. Tennis was a sport of their world: Of country clubs and golf courses and they were reluctant to change. Serena at three and Venus at four, picked up their rackets for the first time and went on to change the sport as we knew it.
Meteoric Rise
Having practiced and perfected her game on the decrepit public courts of Compton, Serena was no stranger to tenacity. By 1991, she was already ranked first in the 10 and under division. As she came of age in a fast-changing world of technology and television, this young woman was ready for the world. And in a way, the world too was ready for her. After her initial victories in 1999 against standing legends like Steffi Graff, her launch to worldwide fame was instantaneous. She became the first African-American woman to win a major Grand Slam title after Althea Gibson in 1958, and after snagging a Doubles win with her sister Venus, she became the fifth-ever woman in the Open era to win both Singles and Doubles at the same tournament. But it was the 2002 Wimbledon that shot her to the rank of No. 1 in the world. Defeating her sister Venus, the then two-time defending champion by 7-6 (4), 6-3, she claimed her first title at the All England Club and her second straight major. This was followed by a volley of victories at the 2003 Australian Open and Williams became the most groundbreaking player on the tennis court at the time, not just for her game but also for the stereotype-breaking change she brought.
Journey As A Sportswoman
To look at a figure as only a single-faceted individual in sports can be damaging, especially when the individual in question bore within her more than just brilliance on the court. As African-American women, the Williams sisters sporting multicolour beads in their hair on the court were charting a course for the many women of colour to come. But this was not without hurdles. Faced with the double-edged sword of racial discrimination and gender discrimination, Williams was not one to keep quiet about her struggles. “As we know, women have to break down many barriers on the road to success.” Williams wrote in a letter to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). “One of those barriers is the way we are constantly reminded we are not men, as if it is a flaw. People call me one of the ‘world’s greatest female athletes’. Do they say LeBron is one of the world’s best male athletes? Is Tiger? Federer? Why not? They are certainly not female. We should never let this go unchallenged. We should always be judged by our achievements, not by our gender.” Her frustration with the world of professional sports was continuous. When the media called her out on her masculine stature and musculature, she doubled down on photo shoots and media appearances. She didn’t just speak of change, she became it.
Setbacks And Comebacks
Her journey, however, was marred with personal struggles that became testimony to her will and resilience. In 2003, Serena and Venus’ older sister Yetunde was murdered in a drive-by shooting. She was a 31-year-old mother of three, and the grief of this event was carried by both the sisters, but especially the youngest Serena, throughout their professional careers. 2006 saw her benched due to an ankle injury that kept her off the court for a year. Missing all the major four, her ranking dropped from the world’s top 10. Following that, a chronic knee injury meant she could only play four tournaments for the season, which led her to drop out of the World’s Top 100 too. But she bounced back, with the same tenacity – making her way up the ranks again. One of the most significant events of her professional and personal life was her battle with an almost fatal hematoma that caused a pulmonary embolism in 2011. Something that would come back to haunt her later on in life. The 2012 Wimbledon marked her official comeback to the court, after two harrowing years. Playing against the formidable Agnieszka Radwanska at the All England Club, she clinched her victory in the third set with an amazing 6-2 – winning her fifth Wimbledon title and 14th Slam.
Mother, Woman, Queen Of The Court
Williams married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2017. Giving birth to their daughter Olympia Ohanian the same year, she shared her immense joy with the world. Coming from a big family, she’d always dreamt of having one herself and Olympia’s birth marked the beginning of a new chapter in her life. Childbirth, however, was no easy feat for the ever resilient Williams. Black women are three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women, and Williams’ experience with an emergency C-section followed by multiple back-to-back surgeries meant she almost became one of them. Her history with pulmonary embolism in 2011 is what saved her. During the emergency C-section surgery, her already traumatised body threw another clot. Something which could’ve killed her if not for Serena’s conviction that she has felt this before and that she knew what it was. A relapse of her pulmonary embolism: A blood clot in the lung. But the resilient mama lived, and Olympia was healthy. Serena describes this part of her life as when her body “shifted allegiance” from sports to motherhood. This did not mean, however, that they were exclusive of each other. She had won her final Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open while being secretly pregnant at eight weeks at the age of 35 in 2017. This was her 23rd title and gave her the title of G.O.A.T: The Greatest Of All Time, and the only living player to hold the number until 2023 when Novak Djokovic surpassed her with 24 titles to his name.
Motherhood suited the acclaimed sportswoman. She still played: Through breastfeeding, through postpartum depression, through her new role as a mother. Still, Williams ensured that she was as present a mother as she could be, hardly letting her professional obligations hinder her. Even so, she was painfully aware of the double standards professional women have to face to succeed at work and home. In an open letter to ‘Vogue’ on the eve of her retirement, she wrote, “Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labour of expanding our family.”
Serena Williams retired from tennis in the September of 2022, leaving behind an incomparable legacy. In August of 2023, she gave birth to her second child, Adira River Ohanian, who came into the world a happy, beautiful and cherished daughter.
Williams, Off The Court
After officially retiring from the sport, Serena has expanded her talents into the world of venture capitalists. Her investment firm, Serena Ventures, launched in 2017, finds and invests in upcoming companies and startups – making sure that the gender and racial gap present in the industry is at least partly bridged. Serena’s mission is to champion diverse, creative founders and powerful ideas. MasterClass is one of the companies, among the 16 unicorns that owe their success to Serena Ventures.
Her philanthropic projects like the Yetunde Price Resource Centre (YPRC), created in honour of her late sister, provide resources for those going through traumatic events to flourish. Based out of Compton, CA, YPRC’s mission is to promote healing and resilience. She is also the founder of her beauty line — WYN Beauty by Serena Williams, and has dabbled with designer apparel in the past with ‘Aneres’.
Today, she stands tall at the bow of her life fiercely looking out for those she loves. She’s a trailblazer, burning a path for hundreds of POC (person of colour) women with someone to look up to as they enter the unforgiving world of sports. She has succeeded in erasing some prejudice, if not all, and now she’s often called the world’s greatest athlete, not just female athlete, of all time, and she wears that badge of honour proudly: With vulnerability, tenacity, and grit.
