The American lawn tennis prodigy Serena Williams, who is also the sister of Venus Williams, another lawn tennis sensation, is profiled in the following 52 facts. You can learn about her personal life, relationships, sporting career, interests, and fascinating facts.
1. Serena, a well-known American lawn tennis player, is Venus Williams’ younger sister and the offspring of Richard Williams and Oracene Price. In Saginaw, Michigan, on September 26, 1981, she was born.
2. Of the five sisters—Yetunde, Isha, Lynda, and Venus—she is the youngest. In the autumn of 2003, her elder sister was killed in Los Angeles, California. She was reared in Los Angeles despite being from Saginaw, Michigan, where she was born.
3. When Williams was nine years old, her family relocated to Palm Beach, Florida so she could enrol in Rick Macci’s tennis programme.
4. In order to give Serena and her older sister more time to practise tennis, their father homeschooled them from kindergarten through high school. This strategy would pay off in the future.
5. Yes, Serena attended college. She studied fashion at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale from 2000 to 2003. This does not imply, however, that she was not pursuing her love of tennis.
6. She succeeded in pattern-making while attending this institute; she cited her love of mathematics and the technical parts of pattern-making as reasons for her success. After completing her studies at the fashion institute, she started a line of evening apparel.
7. Her attempt at fashion design failed, and the line gradually faded away. When tennis eventually took precedence at this point, Serena returned to the courts, winning numerous tournaments and amassing wealth.
8. She and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian started a family around this time. In 2017, the pair were hitched and welcomed a baby into the world.
9. Serena won the U.S. Open in 1999 when she was just 17 years old. Her career as a prominent tennis star officially began at this point. She had interests outside of tennis, such as fashion.
10. She started playing tennis less frequently in order to attend fashion school, which angered many tennis players. Serena did not allow these critiques to stop her from pursuing her goal, though. Throughout her career, she had worked on collections with HSN and Nike.
11. Serena made the decision to establish her apparel line, Serena, which debuted in 2018. She described her clothesline as being for self-assured ladies when speaking to Elle about her new endeavour. She wanted to have a company planned for when she stopped playing competitive tennis because she knew she couldn’t play the sport indefinitely.
12. The well-known tennis player revealed to reporters that, as a Jehovah’s Witness, she did not believe in celebrating birthdays because she believed that doing so offends God.
13. Serena primarily used the tennis courts for her time. She began receiving instruction when she was only three years old. She began playing tennis professionally while she was in the middle of her teen years.
14. Despite the fact that Serena was raised in the United States, many people are curious about her origins. She was thought to be Jamaican by some. These rumours were denied by Serena. She has made hints that her ethnic roots are in Africa, despite the fact that no one is certain of her true heritage.
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15. The legend’s professional career started in 1995, not long after Serena turned fourteen. She won the U.S. Open and the 2002–2003 season within a ten-year period.
16. It didn’t take her long to start putting extra feathers in her cap. She won all four major competitions—Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open—in what is known as the career Grand Slam.
17. It was merely the clichéd “tip of the iceberg.” In the future, Serena would rank among the top female tennis players ever. She won 23 Grand Slam titles over the course of her successful career, raking in sponsorship and prize money.
18. Serena was also one of the world’s highest-paid athletes. Despite her celebrity and wealth, she is renowned for her charitable contributions. She has collaborated with various charities and non-profits in addition to contributing money to numerous causes. The Serena Williams Secondary School in Kenya, which started classes in November 2008, was co-founded by her.
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19. Serena has also given generously to fund the construction of schools in Jamaica and Africa. It just goes to show that she never allowed celebrity or wealth to influence her decisions.
20. She was not averse to having unclean hands. She posted a photo on Instagram of herself constructing the frame of a wall while wearing work gloves and a hard hat while she was in Jamaica helping to build schools in underprivileged areas.
21. Charity aside, the tennis phenom has visited Jamaica frequently, frequently residing at the beachside villa that costs $20,000 per week. She enjoys travelling, and she and her group particularly enjoy visiting Jamaica.
22. Not many people are aware that Serena is also a fluent French speaker. When she was a teenager, she picked up this language. However, until Williams won the French Open in 2013, only a small number of people outside of her personal circle were aware of it.
23 When asked why she was learning French, Serena said that she wasn’t from Jamaica. She quickly responded by saying that many Africans speak French in addition to their native tongues. She has, however, put forth a lot of effort for the poor in Jamaica and Africa.
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24. Despite the fact that Serena was proficient in French, she was hesitant to announce this to the public. She once admitted to the media that speaking French was scarier than playing tennis.
25. In addition to her love of the French language, Serena also adores French culture. She invested in a Paris apartment adjacent to the iconic Eiffel Tower, where she now stays whenever she travels to the city for business or pleasure.