Serena Williams Biodata

Birth Name : Serena Jameka Williams

Date of birth : 26/09/1981

Place of birth : Saginaw, Michigan

Category : Tennis

Serena Williams is an American professional tennis player, she was born on Sept 26, 1981 at Saginaw, Michigan. Her parents are Richard Williams and Oracene Price. Serena has four siblings Venus Williams, Yetunde Price, Isha Price and Lyndrea Price. Her father, Richard, home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus.

Early Career

Serena Williams started his professional life in 1995, at the age of 14. The Womens Tennis Association (WTA), barred competitors from WTA events at that age, Williamss first pro event was a non-WTA tournament in Quebec, Canada. She was quickly eliminated from that competition. Williams went on to defeat fourth-ranked Monica Seles in the quarterfinals before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals. She completed the 1997 season ranked ninety-nine, an impressive debut year for a sixteen-year-old player. Serena had spent most of her life looking up to Venus and working to be just like her. Both sisters, however, also felt an intense drive to win, regardless of who is on the other side of the net.

Career

In 1995, Serena turned to Two years later, she was already No.99 in the world rankings up from No.304 just 12 months before. A year later, she graduated high school, and almost immediately inked a $12 million shoe deal with Puma. In 1999, she beat out her sister in their race to the familys first Grand Slam win, when she captured the U.S. Open title. In 2008, she won the U.S. Open and teamed with Venus to capture a second womens doubles Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games. But Serena also had her scrapes and losses. She underwent knee surgery in August 2003, and in September her half-sister Yetunde Price was murdered in Los Angeles, California. Three years later, Serena seemed burned out. Bitten by injuries, and just a general lack of motivation to stay fit or compete at the same level she once had, Serena saw her tennis ranking slump to 139.

In 2011, Williams suffered a series of health scares, after doctors found a blood clot in one of her lungs, which kept her away from tennis for several months. Following several procedures, including one to remove a hematoma, speculation rose as to whether Williams would retire from the sport. Her health had improved by September 2011, however, and Williams looked like her old dominant self at the U.S. Open before falling to Samantha Stosur in the finals.

Serena dated actor Jackie Long from 2007 to 2008. She was also in a relationship with rapper/actor Common from 2008 to 2010