Serena Williams: Top 5 career moments

Serena Williams is often referred to as one of the greatest women’s tennis players in the history of the sport. When she was knocked out of the US Open 2022 on Friday, September 2, which probably was her final appearance in the US Open, tributes poured over her on social media platforms for her long and illustrious career.

She was beaten by Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, who after the match went on to reveal that she did not think she would win. Ajla also said that she was sad because she loves and admires Serena Williams.

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Williams has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles in her career and 14 major doubles titles, with her sister, Venus. Let’s take a look at the top five moments of her career.

First Grand Slam win

Serena made her professional debut in 1995 when she was practising under the guidance of her father, Richard. Her father predicted that Serena would be even better than Venus, his elder daughter and in the 1999 US Open showed the world the reason why.

Venus, the older of the Williams sisters, was seeded third and advanced to the final of the US Open two years before. Meanwhile, Serena was seeded seventh, who was only 17 at the time.

She went on to win the US Open title that year by defeating Kim Clijsters, Conchita Martinez, Monica Seles, reigning champion Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis in the final.

Serena defeated Hingis 6-3, 7-6(4) to become the first African-American player since Arthur Ashe in 1975 to emerge victorious in a singles major. She was also the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since 1958.

Winning consecutive slams 

Following her heroics in the 1999 US Open, Serena witnessed a downward spiral as Venus won two Wimbledon and two US Open titles in 2000 and 2001.

However, she made a comeback in the following year. Serena beat Venus in the finals of Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open (2003), which later became famous as the Serena Slam.

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Australian Open win in 2007

Serena was plagued with injuries in 2006, especially an issue with her right knee. This forced her to go outside the top 100. However, she gained some ground ahead of the Australian Open in 2007, becoming WTA no. 81 ahead of the Grand Slam.

She went on to beat top seed Maria Sharapova in the final of the Australian Open in 2007 and conceded only three games. This was her eighth Grand Slam victory.

Olympics singles gold medal in 2012

The American maverick was in her prime at that time and she continued her impressive form at the London Olympics, winning the gold medal.

 It was her third Olympic gold medal and Serena conceded 16 games throughout her campaign to win it. She defeated Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in the final. The win also helped her to complete her big five collections, which include the four Grand Slams and the Olympics singles gold medal.

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Australian Open win in 2017

This would be memorable to many tennis fans as this was the last Grand Slam final she won. She defeated her older sister, Venus Williams, in the final and overtook tennis great Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.

Serena also became the oldest women’s player to win a Grand Slam singles title with that win. Another remarkable fact about the win is, that she won the title while she was pregnant with her daughter Olympia at the time.