Last Friday night Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia defeated Williams 7-5, 6-7 (7-4), 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The three-hour match featured a wild, lengthy comeback that ended with a heated tiebreak in the second set before Tomljanovic finally closed out the match in the third, capping off one of the tournament's best and most-watched matches.
The icon, legend, and GOAT, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, lost her final match as a professional tennis player in the third round of the US Open and bid tennis farewell after a timeless legacy.
Williams, 40, admits that leaving tennis is a difficult decision, but she is satisfied with her accomplishments.
Serena Williams, an American, has gone from learning tennis on public courts in a gang-controlled neighborhood to becoming a generation's superstar and possibly the greatest player in history.
In a White-dominated sport, the African American has become an icon. She has won 23 Grand Slam titles, broken records, and accomplished feats with the same zeal as her shots on the court.
Serena and her sister Venus, who has seven major titles, were executive producers of "King Richard," a film about their father, Richard Williams, who taught them tennis as they grew up in Compton, California.
Serena Williams said after winning the US Open in 2013, "I'm still that racquet girl who dreams and plays for it."
Williams' father began teaching her to play tennis when she was three years old. Serena, like her sister Venus, quickly demonstrated a talent for the sport. Every day, the two practiced tennis on Compton's public courts.
Serena's family relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, when she was nine years old. Serena and Venus began competing against other junior tennis players there. They also began working with a new coach. Until that point, their father, Richard Williams, had coached them.
Serena began her career as a professional tennis player in 1995. She was immediately recognized as a rising star. She proved herself on the court, winning her first Grand Slam in singles in 1999. A Grand Slam in tennis occurs when a player wins all four major titles in the same year. This includes the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the United States Open.
Serena Williams dominated women's tennis for the next several years. She also collaborated with Venus, a top professional tennis player herself. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the two won gold in women's tennis doubles.
In 2008 and 2012, the Williams sisters won gold in the Olympic women's tennis doubles. Serena also won gold in women's singles in 2012. Despite injuries in the early 2000s, she kept on winning.
Serena Williams completed her 23rd Grand Slam in 2017. The tennis player later revealed that she was pregnant at the time she accomplished this feat. She gave birth to a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr., in September of that year.
The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) has ranked her as the world's top singles player for 319 weeks, including a joint record of 186 consecutive weeks. She has also finished the year five times as the top player. She has the second-most Grand Slam singles titles of any player in the Open Era (after Margaret Court's 24).
Williams has a record 13 Grand Slam singles titles on hard courts. She and Chris Evert share the Open Era record for most US Open titles won, and she holds the record for the most women's singles titles won at the Australian Open, with seven.
Williams has won 856 matches and lost only 154 in her 27-year professional career. This includes 365 major match victories, the most of any player in history, and 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most in the Open Era.
Off the court, she has broken down barriers, battling racism and sexism, redefining beauty, and raising the bar for financial success, earning $95 million in career prize money, the most of any women's tennis player in history, as well as superstar big brand endorsements.
Serena Williams is a businesswoman in addition to her achievements on the court. She and Venus became joint owners of the Miami Dolphins in 2009. They are the first African-American women to own a professional football team.
Serena has always been interested in fashion. In 2018, she debuted her own clothing line, S. In 2019, she launched a jewellery line. Williams also invests in companies that place a premium on diverse leadership. Serena Ventures, her venture capital firm, is where she does it.
In terms of her political beliefs, after winning her fourth-round match at the 2016 Roland Garros, Serena Williams was asked about Donald Trump. She responded that she was "not involved at all [in politics],” and then added, "I don’t vote. It goes back to my religion."
In her personal life, she married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2016. She and Alexis had a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., in September 2017 and married in November 2017. She previously had a relationship with her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.
