Serena Williams: Rising from Sister's Shadows
Serena Williams [born September 26, 1981] is an American Tennis player who’s ranked no. 1 in both, singles and doubles. With 13 singles majors, she’s sixth in the all-time list for women and her 12 Grand Slams in doubles and 2 in mixed doubles places her ninth in the all-time list.
Style Of Play…
Serena Williams’ style of play hinges around a powerful serve that’s backed by even more forceful ground-strokes both, off the forehand and the backhand. Her serve and the backhand are especially considered to be lethal with the former having saved her from tough situations on a number of occasions. Like a number of her peers such as Maria Sharapova and elder sister Venus Williams, Serena has the tendency to grunt while playing, and that’s often earned her boos from the crowd.
Formal Coaching From Dad…
Though Serena did receive some amount of formal coaching for close to four years at the tennis academy of Rick Macci, her father Richard Williams wasn’t too pleased with the taunts that apparently came her daughters’ way from parents of white children.
Moreover, he felt that stints at any tennis academy would harm Serena’s grades at school and he wanted her to maintain a balance between studies and sport. As a result, in 2005, Williams pulled both, Serena and Venus out of the academy and effectively became their full-time coach.
First Taste Of Success…
Serena’s first bit of success came in the 1999 season where she won her first professional singles title having defeated the then reigning Australian Open champion Amelie Mauresmo at the Open Gaz de France. A month later, there was another title in her kitty, this time a more significant one as she won her maiden Tier I singles event at Indian Wells by defeating Steffi Graf in the final.
Some more important wins followed including those over Martina Hingis and by April 1999, Serena Williams had become a Top 10 player.
Contributor To Hingis Downfall…
Serena Williams is one of the players majorly responsible for cutting short the reign of Swiss star Martina Hingis atop the women’s ranking. Hingis’ style of play was a complete contrast to Serena’s and other players who would later change the face of women’s tennis for the next 10 years. Hingis who relied on a game that had minimum amount of ‘power play’ attached to it, was completely overwhelmed by the power element of players such as Serena Williams.
The Swiss Miss, who dominated the scene between 1997 and 1999 with a 209-week reign at the top started losing more consistently to Williams who was slowly gaining more confidence on the tour.
First Slam, 1999 US Open…
Despite her breakthrough season in 1999, few expected Serena to do well in the singles of a Grand Slam. In the company of sister Venus Williams, Serena had won the French Open Doubles that year and in singles had recorded some important wins in the Fed Cup besides winning tournaments such as the JP Morgan Chase Open, once again having defeated Hingis on the way.
Nonetheless, injuries forced her to skip Wimbledon and not many expected her to do well even at home, in the US Open.
At the last Grand Slam of the year, Serena was reportedly low on confidence. Besides, Venus Williams was a much more famous player on the tour though she too was without a Slam.
Nonetheless, it was younger sister Serena who would first break the Grand Slam deadlock in the family as she went on to win the title at home by defeating players such as Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport and Hingis again, who was by then enjoying her final few weeks at the top of women’s tennis.
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