|residence= Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
|datebirth= September 26, 1981
|placebirth= Saginaw, Michigan, USA
|height= 5 ft 9 in (175 cm)
|weight= 165 lb (75 kg)
|turnedpro= 1995
|plays= Right; Two-handed backhand
|careerprizemoney= $15,940,130
|singlesrecord= 317-66
|singlestitles= 26
|highestsinglesranking= No. 1 (July 8, 2002)
|AustralianOpenresult= '''W''' (2003, 2005)
|FrenchOpenresult= '''W''' (2002)
|Wimbledonresult= '''W''' (2002, 2003)
|USOpenresult= '''W''' (1999, 2002)
|doublesrecord= 94-15
|doublestitles= 11
|highestdoublesranking= No. 5 (October 11, 1999)
|updated= August 14, 2006
}}
'''Serena Jameka Williams''' (born September 26, 1981) is a professional women's tennis player, who is a former '''World No. 1''' of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). She is the younger sister of another female tennis champion, Venus Williams. She currently resides in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States.
Early life
Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan. When she and her four sisters were young, their parents, Richard and Oracene (also called Brandy), lived in the poor and violent 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 a way out of that neighborhood.
When Serena was four and a half, she won her first tournament, and she entered 49 tournaments before 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.
1991-1997
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 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 to West Palm Beach, to be near Serena and Venus.
Serena became a professional in September 1995 at the age of 14. Because of her age, she had to participate in non-WTA events at first. Her first professional event was the ''Bell Challenge'' in Quebec, and she was ousted in less than an hour of play.
By 1997, ranked number 304 in the world, she upset both Monica Seles and Mary Pierce at the Ameritech Open in Chicago, Illinois, recording her first career wins over top 10
players. She finished 1997 in the top 100 at no. 99.
1998
1998 was the first year when she finished in the WTA top 20. She began the season in Sydney as a qualifier, ranked
