Serena Jameka Williams, (born September 26, 1981) is
an American former World No. 1 ranked female tennis
player who has won eight Grand Slam singles titles
and an Olympic gold medal in women's doubles. She is
the last player, male or female, to have held all
four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously. In
2005, Tennis magazine ranked her as the 17th-best
player of the preceding forty years. She is the
younger sister of another former World No. 1
professional female tennis player, Venus Williams.
Serena currently resides at Ballen Isles in Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida.
Serena was born in Saginaw, Michigan. When she and
her four sisters were young, their parents, Richard
and Oracene (also called Brandy), moved to the Los
Angeles suburb of Compton. Her father dreamed of
making at least one of his daughters a tennis
superstar, hoping that involvement in sports would
give them an opportunity for a better life.
When Serena was four and a half, she won her first
tournament, and she entered 49 tournaments by the
age of 10, winning 46 of them. At one point, she
replaced her sister Venus as the number one ranked
tennis player aged 12 or under in California.
In 1991, Richard Williams, saying that he hoped to
prevent his daughters from facing racism, stopped
sending them to national junior tennis tournaments,
and Serena attended a tennis school run by
professional player Rick Macci in Haines City,
Florida at Greneleaf Resort and Conference Center
instead. Macci had already helped the careers of
Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce, among others.
Soon Richard, who had struck a deal on behalf of his
daughters with a major clothing company, was able to
move the rest of the Williams family to West Palm
Beach, to be near Serena and Venus.
