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- published: 07 Aug 2013
- views: 12822
- author: MrPieroTW
Hingis playing for the New York Sportimes in the 2011 WTT. |
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Country | Switzerland |
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Residence | Hurden, Switzerland |
Born | (1980-09-30) 30 September 1980 (age 31) Košice, (then Czechoslovakia, now in modern Slovakia) |
Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) |
Weight | 59 kg (130 lb; 9.3 st) |
Turned pro | 1994 |
Retired | 2007 |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Career prize money | US$20,130,657 (7th in all-time rankings) |
Singles | |
Career record | 548–133 (80.5%) |
Career titles | 43 WTA, 2 ITF |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (31 March 1997) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | W (1997, 1998, 1999) |
French Open | F (1997, 1999) |
Wimbledon | W (1997) |
US Open | W (1997) |
Other tournaments | |
Championships | W (1998, 2000) |
Olympic Games | 2R (1996) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 286–54 (84.1%) |
Career titles | 37 WTA, 1 ITF |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (8 June 1998) |
Grand Slam Doubles results | |
Australian Open | W (1997, 1998, 1999, 2002) |
French Open | W (1998, 2000) |
Wimbledon | W (1996, 1998) |
US Open | W (1998) |
Mixed Doubles | |
Career titles | 1 |
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
Australian Open | W (2006) |
Last updated on: 8 June 2011. |
Martina Hingis (born 30 September 1980) is a retired Swiss professional tennis player who spent a total of 209 weeks as World No. 1.[1] She won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Opens, one Wimbledon, and one US Open). She also won nine Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title.
Hingis set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in 2002 at the age of 22. After several surgeries and long recuperations, Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006. She then climbed to world number 6 and won three singles titles. On 1 November 2007, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis after testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon in 2007. She denied using the drug, but decided not to appeal the imminent ban.[2][3]
In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time.[4]
Contents |
Hingis was born in Košice, (then part of Czechoslovakia, now in modern Slovakia), to accomplished tennis players[5] Melanie Molitorová and Karol Hingis. Molitorová was a professional tennis player, who was once ranked tenth among women in Czechoslovakia, and was determined to develop Hingis into a top player as early as pregnancy.[6] Her father was ranked as high as nineteenth in the Czechoslovakian tennis rankings. Hingis's parents divorced when she was six, and she and her mother relocated around a year later to Trübbach in Switzerland.[6] Her father, who continued to live in Košice as a tennis coach, said in 1997 that he had seen little of his daughter after the split.[7]
Hingis began playing tennis when she was two years old and entered her first tournament at age four.[8] In 1993, 12-year-old Hingis became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam junior title: the girls' singles at the French Open.[9] In 1994, she retained her French Open junior title, won the girls' singles title at Wimbledon, and reached the final of the US Open.[10]
She made her professional debut in October 1994, two weeks after her 14th birthday. She ended the year ranked World No. 87,[10] and in January 1995, she became the youngest player to win a match at a Grand Slam tournament when she advanced to the second round of the Australian Open.[11]
In 1996, Hingis became the youngest Grand Slam champion of all time, when she teamed with Helena Suková at Wimbledon to win the women's doubles title at age 15 years and 9 months.[12] She also won her first professional singles title that year at Filderstadt, Germany. She reached the singles quarterfinals at the 1996 Australian Open and the singles semifinals of the 1996 US Open. Following her win at Filderstadt, Hingis defeated the reigning Australian Open champion and co-top ranked (with Steffi Graf) Monica Seles in the final at Oakland. Hingis then lost to Graf at the year-end WTA Tour Championships.
In 1997, Hingis became the undisputed World No. 1 women's tennis player. She started the year by winning the warm-up tournament in Sydney. She then became the youngest Grand Slam singles winner in the 20th century by winning the Australian Open at age 16 years and 3 months (beating former champion Mary Pierce in the final). In March, she became the youngest top ranked player in history. In July, she became the youngest singles champion at Wimbledon since Lottie Dod in 1887 by beating Jana Novotná in the final. She then defeated another up-and-coming player, Venus Williams, in the final of the US Open. The only Grand Slam singles title that Hingis failed to win in 1997 was the French Open, where she lost in the final to Iva Majoli. She won the Australian Open women's doubles with Natasha Zvereva.
In 1998, Hingis won all four of the Grand Slam women's doubles titles, only the fourth in women's tennis history to do so,[13] (the Australian Open with Mirjana Lučić and the other three events with Novotná), and she became only the third woman to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. She also retained her Australian Open singles title by beating Conchita Martínez in straight sets in the final. Hingis, however, lost in the final of the US Open to Lindsay Davenport. Davenport ended an 80-week stretch Hingis had enjoyed as the No. 1 singles player in October 1998, but Hingis finished the year by beating Davenport in the final of the WTA Tour Championships.
1999 saw Hingis win her third successive Australian Open singles crown as well as the doubles title (with Anna Kournikova). She then reached the French Open final and was three points away from victory in the second set before losing to Steffi Graf. During the match, Hingis had infuriated an already partisan crowd by arguing with the umpire over several line calls. In the second set, she crossed to the other side of the net to inspect her own ball mark, thereby incurring a mandatory one-point penalty. She was also booed for taking a bathroom break early in the final set, and twice delivering underhand serves. After the match, Hingis rushed from the court in tears, and only returned to the court for the trophy ceremony after being comforted by her mother.[14] Following the French Open, Martina revealed at Wimbledon that her mother was no longer her coach.[15] After a shock first-round 6–2, 6–0 loss to Jelena Dokić at Wimbledon,[16] Hingis bounced back to reach her third consecutive US Open final, where she lost to Serena Williams. Hingis won a total of seven singles titles that year and reclaimed the No. 1 singles ranking. She also reached the final of the WTA Tour Championships, where she lost to Lindsay Davenport.
In 2000, Hingis again found herself in both the singles and doubles finals at the Australian Open. This time, however, she lost both. Her three-year hold on the singles championship ended when she lost to Davenport. Later, Hingis and Mary Pierce, her new doubles partner, lost to Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs. Hingis captured the French Open women's doubles title with Pierce and produced consistent results in singles tournaments throughout the year. She reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon before losing to Venus Williams. Although she did not win a Grand Slam singles tournament, she kept the year end No. 1 ranking because of nine tournament championships, including the WTA Tour Championships where she won the singles and doubles titles.
In 2001, Switzerland, with Hingis and Roger Federer on its team, won the Hopman Cup. Hingis was undefeated in singles during the event, defeating Tamarine Tanasugarn, Nicole Pratt, Amanda Coetzer, and Monica Seles.[17]
Hingis reached her fifth consecutive Australian Open final in 2001, defeating both of the Williams sisters en route, before losing to Jennifer Capriati. She briefly ended her coaching relationship with her mother Melanie early in the year[18] but had a change of heart two months later just before the French Open. 2001 was a her least successful year in several seasons, with only three tournament victories in total. She lost her No. 1 ranking for the last time (to Jennifer Capriati) on 14 October 2001. In that same month, Hingis underwent surgery on her right ankle.
Coming back from injury, Hingis won the Australian Open doubles final at the start of 2002 (again teaming with Anna Kournikova) and reached a sixth straight Australian Open final in singles, again facing Capriati. Hingis led by a set and 4–0 and had four match points but lost 4–6, 7–6, 6–2. In May 2002, she needed another ankle ligament operation, this time on her left ankle. After that, she continued to struggle with injuries and was not able to recapture her best form.
In February 2003, at the age of 22, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis, due to her injuries and being in pain.[19] "I want to play tennis only for fun and concentrate more on horse riding and finish my studies"[20] In several interviews, she indicated she wanted to go back to her country and coach full time.[citation needed]
During this segment of her tennis career, Hingis won 40 singles titles and 36 doubles events. She held the World No. 1 singles ranking for a total of 209 weeks (fourth most following Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert). In 2005, Tennis magazine put her in 22nd place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
In February 2005, Hingis made an unsuccessful return to competition at an event in Pattaya, Thailand, where she lost to Germany's Marlene Weingärtner in the first round. After the loss, she claimed that she had no further plans for a comeback.
Hingis, however, resurfaced in July, playing singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in World Team Tennis and notching up singles victories over two top 100 players and shutting out Martina Navratilova in singles on 7 July. With these promising results behind her, Hingis announced on 29 November her return to the WTA Tour in 2006.
At the Australian Open, Hingis lost in the quarterfinals to second-seeded Kim Clijsters. However, Hingis won the mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi of India. This was her first career Grand Slam mixed doubles title and fifteenth overall (5 singles, 9 women's doubles, 1 mixed doubles).
The week after the Australian Open, Hingis defeated World No. 4 Maria Sharapova in the semifinals of the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo before losing in the final to World No. 9 Elena Dementieva. Hingis competed in Dubai then, reaching the quarter-finals before falling to Sharapova. At the Tier I Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, Hingis defeated World No. 4 Lindsay Davenport in the fourth round before again losing to Sharapova in the semifinals.
At the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, Hingis posted her 500th career singles match victory in the quarterfinals, beating World No. 18 Flavia Pennetta, and subsequently won the tournament with wins over Venus Williams in the semifinals and Dinara Safina in the final. This was her 41st Women's Tennis Association tour singles title and first in more than four years. Hingis then reached the quarterfinals of the French Open before losing to Kim Clijsters.
At Wimbledon, Hingis lost in the third round to Ai Sugiyama.
Hingis's return to the US Open was short lived, however, as she was upset in the second round by World No. 112 Virginie Razzano of France.
In her first tournament after the US Open, Hingis won the second title of her comeback at the Tier III Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, India. She defeated unseeded Russian Olga Poutchkova in the final. The following week in Seoul, Hingis notched her 50th match win of the year before losing in the second round to Sania Mirza.
Hingis qualified for the year-ending WTA Tour Championships in Madrid as the eighth seed. In her round robin matches, she lost in three sets to both Justine Henin and Amélie Mauresmo but defeated Nadia Petrova.
Hingis ended the year ranked World No. 7. She also finished eighth in prize money earnings (U.S.$1,159,537). Hingis too ranked as number 7 on the Annual Top Google News Searches in 2006.[21]
At the Australian Open, Hingis won her first three rounds without losing a set before defeating China's Li Na in the fourth round. Hingis then lost a quarterfinal match to Kim Clijsters. This was the second consecutive year that Hingis had lost to Clijsters in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the third time in the last five Grand Slam tournaments that Clijsters had eliminated Hingis in the quarterfinals.
Hingis won her next tournament, the Tier I Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, defeating Ana Ivanovic in the final. This was Hingis's record fifth singles title at this event.
A hip injury that troubled her at the German Open caused her to withdraw from the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where she was the defending champion, and the French Open, the only important singles title that eluded her.
In her first round match at Wimbledon, Hingis saved two match points to defeat British wildcard Naomi Cavaday, apparently not having fully recovered from the hip injury that prevented her from playing the French Open.[22] In the third round, Hingis lost to Laura Granville of the United States, and stated afterwards she should not have entered the tournament.[23]
Hingis's next tournament was the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, the US Open, which she had won ten years ago for the first time. Hingis lost in the third round to Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka. Hingis did not play any tournaments after the China Open, as she was beset by injuries for the rest of the year.[11]
In November, Hingis admitted that she was under investigation for testing positive for cocaine. She decided to retire.[24] Hingis was handed a 2 year ban by the ITF for testing positive at Wimbledon, back dated to October at the start of 2008.[25]
But Hingis maintained her innocence, saying, "I have tested positive but I have never taken drugs and I feel 100 percent innocent." She also said, "I would personally be terrified of taking drugs. When I was informed [about the test] I was shocked and appalled." She is not planning to contest the positive drug test because it could take years. "Because of my age and my health problems, I have also decided to retire from professional tennis." The drug test results were released to Hingis after her third round loss to Laura Granville at Wimbledon, with both "A" and "B" urine samples failing the tests.[26]
Hingis played an exhibition match at the Liverpool International tournament on 13 June 2008. Although this event was a warm-up for Wimbledon, it was not part of the WTA Tour. This allowed Hingis to participate without breaching the rules of her ban.[27] In a rematch of their 1997 Wimbledon final,[28] Hingis defeated Jana Novotná.
In 2009 Hingis partook in the BBC's dancing competition, Strictly Come Dancing. She was the bookies favourite for the competition,[29] but she went out in the first week after performing a Waltz and a Rumba.[30] Despite vowing to win the competition, she promised to apply the same gritty approach to the dance show that had taken her to five grand slams on the tennis court. "Everything I do I do to win. I am very competitive."[31]
At the start of the year Hingis defeated former world number one Lindsay Davenport, and hinted at a possible return to tennis. In February, Martina announced she has committed to a full year with the World TeamTennis Tour in 2010.[32] She had previously played for World Team Tennis in 2005 to assist her first comeback. Sparking thoughts that she was trying to come back to the WTA tour, she committed to playing at the Nottingham Masters.[24] On 5 May 2010, it was announced that Anna Kournikova would reunite with her doubles partner Hingis. Kournikova was participating in competitive tennis for the first time in seven years, in the Invitational Ladies Doubles event at Wimbledon.[33][34] Hingis also confirmed that she would play at the Tradition-ICAP Liverpool International championship in June 2010, preceding Wimbledon,[35] before playing in the Manchester Masters after Wimbledon.[36] Liverpool like the Nottingham and Manchester Masters are organised by her management company Northern Vision.[37] At the Nottingham Masters, Hingis faced Michaëlla Krajicek[38][39] (twice), Olga Savchuk[40] and Monika Wejnert.[41] Hingis won just once in the event, against Wejnert. After the Nottingham event Billie Jean King stated that she believed that Hingis may return to the WTA Tour on the doubles circuit, after competing in the WTT.[42]
During Wimbledon in an interview with doubles partner Anna Kournikova, Hingis stated that she will not be returning to the tour; she has had her comeback before and it was fun.[citation needed]
On 5 June, Hingis, in team with Lindsay Davenport, won the Roland Garros Women's Legends title, defeating Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna in the final, 6–1, 6–2. Before facing Navratilova/Novotna, Hingis and Davenport won two round robin matches in the tournament: first against Gigi Fernandez / Natasha Zvereva (6–1 6–3), and then in the next match they prevailed over Andrea Temesvari / Sandrine Testud 6–3 6–7 and 10:0 in the Super tie-break.[43][44]
On 3 July, Hingis partnering Lindsay Davenport won the Wimbledon Ladies' Invitation Doubles title defeating Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna in the final, 6–4, 6–4.[45] She also played for the New York SPORTIMES of the World TeamTennis Pro League in July 2011. She finished the season with the top winning percentage of any player competing in Women's Singles.
Hingis was renowned for her cerebral approach to the game of tennis and for her technical skills, enabling her to produce a wide array of shots with finesse. She lacked the power possessed by many of her contemporaries; therefore, she relied on low error-rates and good shot selection to keep opponents off-balance. She often used change of direction and pace to catch opponents off guard and sharp angles to open up the court. She was also well known for her ability to break long rallies by hitting accurate drop shots and coming to the net, where she was a skilled volleyer. A signature play of Hingis was the drop shot followed by a lob, often resulting in an easy volley or overhead to finish the point. Hingis often hit the ball extremely early by standing close to the baseline (or inside it) in order to take reaction time away from her opponent because she did not have sufficient power to hit winners past her opponents.
Hingis's strongest groundstroke was her two-handed backhand, which had an extremely low error-rate and great variety. Her backhand down-the-line was among her signature shots and often the shot she chose to hit with greater pace to surprise opponents during a rally.
Hingis has dated Spanish golf player Sergio García and British footballer Sol Campbell.[46][47] She was briefly engaged to Czech tennis player Radek Štěpánek, but split from him in August 2007.[48] She has also dated former tennis players Magnus Norman, Ivo Heuberger and Julian Alonso.[49] In March 2010, Hingis announced that she was engaged to marry Andreas Bieri, a Swiss attorney,[50] but the engagement was later broken off.[51]
On 10 December 2010 in Paris, she married then-24-year-old Thibault Hutin, an equestrian show jumper who she had met at a competition the previous April.[52]
As a teenager, Martina Hingis was known for being outspoken. During her career, Hingis has made a number of statements about her fellow players that have subsequently become the focus of attention and the source of controversy, such as:
W | F | SF | QF | #R | RR | Q# | A | P | Z# | PO | SF-B | F | NMS |
Won tournament, or reached Final, Semifinal, Quarterfinal, Round 4, 3, 2, 1, played in Round Robin or lost in Qualification Round 3, Round 2, Round 1, Absent from a tournament or Participated in a team event, played in a Davis Cup Zonal Group (with its number indication) or Play-off, won a bronze or silver match at the Olympics. The last is for a Masters Series/1000 tournament that was relegated (Not a Masters Series).
Tournament | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | Career SR | Career W-L |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Open | A | 2R | QF | W | W | W | F | F | F | A | A | A | QF | QF | 3 / 10 | 52–7 |
French Open | A | 3R | 3R | F | SF | F | SF | SF | A | A | A | A | QF | A | 0 / 8 | 35–8 |
Wimbledon | A | 1R | 4R | W | SF | 1R | QF | 1R | A | A | A | A | 3R | 3R | 1 / 9 | 23–8 |
US Open | A | 4R | SF | W | F | F | SF | SF | 4R | A | A | A | 2R | 3R | 1 / 10 | 43–9 |
Grand Slam W-L | 0–0 | 6–4 | 14–4 | 27–1 | 23–3 | 19–3 | 20–4 | 16–4 | 9–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 11–4 | 8–3 | 5 / 37 | 153–32 |
WTA Tour Championships | A | A | F | QF | W | F | W | A | A | A | A | A | RR | A | 2 / 6 | 16–5 |
Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent in the final | Score in the final |
Winner | 1997 | Australian Open | Hard | Mary Pierce | 6–2, 6–2 |
Runner-up | 1997 | French Open | Clay | Iva Majoli | 6–4, 6–2 |
Winner | 1997 | Wimbledon | Grass | Jana Novotná | 2–6, 6–3, 6–3 |
Winner | 1997 | US Open | Hard | Venus Williams | 6–0, 6–4 |
Winner | 1998 | Australian Open (2) | Hard | Conchita Martínez | 6–3, 6–3 |
Runner-up | 1998 | US Open | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 6–3, 7–5 |
Winner | 1999 | Australian Open (3) | Hard | Amélie Mauresmo | 6–2, 6–3 |
Runner-up | 1999 | French Open (2) | Clay | Steffi Graf | 4–6, 7–5, 6–2 |
Runner-up | 1999 | US Open (2) | Hard | Serena Williams | 6–3, 7–6(4) |
Runner-up | 2000 | Australian Open | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 6–1, 7–5 |
Runner-up | 2001 | Australian Open (2) | Hard | Jennifer Capriati | 6–4, 6–3 |
Runner-up | 2002 | Australian Open (3) | Hard | Jennifer Capriati | 4–6, 7–6(7), 6–2 |
Grand Slam | Years | Record accomplished | Player tied |
Australian Open | 1997-02 | 6 consecutive finals | Evonne Goolagong Cawley |
Australian Open | 1997–99 | 3 consecutive wins | Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles |
Grand Slam | 1997 | Won two slams in the same calendar year in straight sets | Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf Serena Williams Justine Henin |
Grand Slam | 1997 | Reached all four Grand Slam finals in a calendar year | Margaret Court Chris Evert Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf Monica Seles Justine Henin |
Grand Slam | 1998 | Calendar Year Women's Doubles Grand Slam | Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver |
1992
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2002
2006
2007
Others
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martina Hingis |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Hingis, Martina |
Alternative names | |
Short description | Swiss tennis player |
Date of birth | 30 September 1980 |
Place of birth | Košice, Slovakia (then Czechoslovakia) |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Country | Yugoslavia (1988–1992) Yugoslavia (1992–1993) United States (from 1995) |
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Residence | Sarasota, Florida, United States |
Born | (1973-12-02) December 2, 1973 (age 38) Novi Sad, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia |
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) |
Weight | 61 kg (130 lb; 9.6 st) |
Turned pro | 1989 |
Retired | 2008 |
Plays | Left-handed; two-handed forehand and backhand |
Career prize money | US$14,891,762 |
Int. Tennis HOF | 2009 (member page) |
Singles | |
Career record | 595–122 (82.98%) |
Career titles | 53 |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (March 11, 1991) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | W (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996) |
French Open | W (1990, 1991, 1992) |
Wimbledon | F (1992) |
US Open | W (1991, 1992) |
Other tournaments | |
Championships | W (1990, 1991, 1992) |
Olympic Games | Bronze (2000) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 89–45 |
Career titles | 6 |
Highest ranking | No. 16 (April 22, 1991) |
Grand Slam Doubles results | |
Australian Open | SF (1991, 2001) |
French Open | 3R (1990) |
Wimbledon | QF (1999) |
US Open | QF (1999) |
Last updated on: January 31, 2009. |
Medal record | ||
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Women's Tennis | ||
Competitor for United States | ||
Olympic Games | ||
Bronze | 2000 Sydney | Singles |
Monica Seles (Serbian: Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš, Hungarian: Szeles Mónika, pronounced [sɛlɛʃ], born December 2, 1973) is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player and a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She was born and raised in Novi Sad, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia, to Hungarian parents. She became a naturalized United States citizen in 1994 and also received Hungarian citizenship in June 2007.[1][2] She won nine Grand Slam singles titles, winning eight of them while a citizen of Yugoslavia and one while a citizen of the United States.
She became the youngest-ever champion at the 1990 French Open at the age of 16. She was the world no. 1 player in the women's game during 1991 and 1992, but in 1993 she was forced out of the sport for more than two years following an on-court attack in which a man stabbed her in the back with a 9-inch-long knife.[3] She enjoyed some success after returning to the tour in 1995, including a Grand Slam singles title at the 1996 Australian Open, but was unable consistently to reproduce her best form. She played her last professional match at the 2003 French Open, but her official retirement announcement was not issued until February 2008.
In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time.[4]
Contents |
Seles was born in Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia in an ethnic Hungarian family. Her parents' names are Eszter and Károly and she has an older brother, Zoltán. She began playing tennis at age five, coached by her father. Károly Szeles, a professional cartoonist, drew pictures for her, to make her tennis more fun. He is responsible for developing her two-handed style for both the forehand and backhand.[5] Later, her coach was Jelena Genčić. In 1985 at age 11, she won the Orange Bowl tournament in Miami, Florida, catching the attention of tennis coach Nick Bollettieri. In 1986 the Seles family moved from SFR Yugoslavia to the United States, and Seles enrolled at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, where she trained for two years.
Seles played her first professional tournament in 1988 at age 14. The following year she joined the professional tour full-time, winning her first career title at Houston in May 1989, where she beat the soon-to-retire Chris Evert in the final. A month later, Seles reached the semifinals of her first Grand Slam singles tournament at the French Open, losing to world no. 1 Steffi Graf, 3-6, 6-3, 3-6. Seles finished her first year on the tour ranked world no. 6.
Seles won her first Grand Slam singles title at the 1990 French Open. Facing world no. 1 Steffi Graf in the final, Seles saved four set points in a first set tiebreaker, which she won 8–6, and went on to take the match in straight sets. In doing so, she became the youngest-ever French Open singles titlist at the age of 16 years, 6 months. She also won the 1990 year-end Virginia Slims Championships, defeating Gabriela Sabatini in five sets. She finished the year ranked world no. 2.
1991 was the first of two years in which Seles dominated the women's tour. She started out by winning the Australian Open in January, beating Jana Novotná in the final. In March, she replaced Graf as the world no. 1. She then successfully defended her French Open title, beating the former youngest-ever winner, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, in the final. Unable to play at Wimbledon, Seles took a six-week break, suffering from shin splints. But she was back in time for the US Open, which she won by beating Martina Navratilova in the final, her third Grand Slam title of the year, to cement her position at the top of the world rankings. She also won the year-end Virginia Slims Championships, defeating Navratilova in four sets.
1992 was an equally dominant year. Seles successfully defended her titles at the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open. She also reached the final at Wimbledon, but lost to Graf, 2-6, 1-6. Two opponents (including Navratilova in the semifinals) had strongly complained about Seles's grunting.
From January 1991 through February 1993, Seles won 22 titles and reached 33 finals out of the 34 tournaments she played. She compiled a 159–12 win-loss record (92.9% winning percentage), including a 55–1 win-loss record in Grand Slam tournaments. In the broader context of her first four years on the circuit (1989–1992), Seles had a win-loss record of 231–25 (90.2% winning percentage) and collected 30 titles.
Seles was the top women's player heading into 1993, having won the French Open three consecutive years and both the US Open and Australian Open in consecutive years. In January 1993, Seles defeated Graf in the final of the Australian Open, which to date was her third win in four Grand Slam finals against Graf.
However, on April 30 during a quarterfinal match with Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg in which Seles was leading 6–4, 4–3, Günter Parche, an obsessed fan of Steffi Graf, ran from the middle of the crowd to the edge of the court during a break between games and stabbed Seles with a boning knife between her shoulder blades, to a depth of 1.5 cm (0.59 inches). She was quickly rushed to a hospital. Although her physical injuries took only a few weeks to heal, she did not return to competitive tennis for more than two years. Initially, there was speculation that the attack may have been politically motivated because of Seles' Serbian roots. She was known to have received death threats in relation to the ongoing conflict in her native Yugoslavia. However, German authorities were quick to rule this out, describing her attacker as confused and possibly mentally disturbed.[3]
Parche was charged following the incident, but was not jailed because he was found to be psychologically abnormal, and was instead sentenced to two years' probation and psychological treatment. The incident prompted a significant increase in the level of security at tour events.[3] At the French Open, held less than a month after the attack, the trophy presentation ceremony took place on the court, rather than in the stands amongst spectators, as it had been done previously. At that year's Wimbledon, the players seats were positioned with their backs to the umpire's chair, rather than the spectators, although some players, including Graf, moved the chair back to its original position. Seles, however, disputed the effectiveness of these measures. She was quoted in 2011 as saying "From the time I was stabbed, I think the security hasn’t changed".[6] Seles vowed never to play tennis in Germany again, disenchanted by the German legal system. "What people seem to be forgetting is that this man stabbed me intentionally and he did not serve any sort of punishment for it... I would not feel comfortable going back. I don't foresee that happening."[7]
Young Elders, a band from Melbourne, Australia, sent their song called "Fly Monica Fly" to Seles while she was recuperating from the 1993 stabbing incident. She later said that the song provided inspiration to her at that time, and subsequently met the band (who later changed their name to The Monicas) following her victory at the Australian Open in 1996.[8]
The stabbing incident is also the subject of Dan Bern's 1998 tribute to Seles, "Monica". Additionally, Detroit dreampop band Majesty Crush paid tribute with "Seles" from the 1993 album Love-15.
In the fourth series of his British sketch comedy show A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Hugh Laurie referenced the Seles stabbing incident when he performed an original song entitled "I'm in Love with Steffi Graf," in which he pretended to be an obsessed fan of Graf's who was willing to "kill to make her happy, or just to get her through the early rounds." The song was performed in the style of a rock ballad.
Seles returned to the tour in August 1995 and won her first comeback tournament, the Canadian Open, beating Amanda Coetzer in the final, 6–0, 6–1. The following month at the US Open, Seles lost the final to Graf, 6–7, 6–0, 3–6, after failing to capitalize on a set point in the first set.
In January 1996, Seles won her fourth Australian Open, beating Anke Huber in the final. But this was her last Grand Slam title. Seles struggled to recapture her best form on a consistent basis. Her difficulties were compounded by having to cope with her father and long-term coach Károly being stricken by cancer and eventually dying in 1998. Seles was the runner-up at the US Open to Graf again in 1996. Her last Grand Slam final came at the French Open in 1998 (a few weeks after her father's death). She defeated world no. 3 Jana Novotná in three sets and world no. 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets, before losing to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the three-set final.
While she did not reach another Grand Slam singles final, she did consistently reach the quarterfinal and semifinal stages in those tournaments and was a fixture in the WTA Tour's top 10. In 2002, her last full year on the tour, she finished the year ranked world no. 7, defeated Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, and Lindsay Davenport, and reached at least the quarterfinals at each Grand Slam tournament.
After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1994, Seles helped the U.S. team win the Fed Cup in 1996, 1999, and 2000. She also won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
In the spring of 2003, Seles sustained a foot injury. She was forced to withdraw during the second set of a match against Nadia Petrova at the Italian Open. Then, a couple of weeks later and still injured, she lost in straight sets to the same player in the first round of the 2003 French Open. It was the only time she ever lost a first-round match at a Grand Slam. She never again played an official tour match.[9]
In February 2005, Seles played two exhibition matches in New Zealand against Navratilova. Despite losing both matches, she played competitively and announced that she could return to the game early in 2006; however, she did not do so. She played three exhibition matches against Navratilova in 2007. On April 5, she defeated Navratilova in Houston, Texas, on clay, 7–6 (1), 2–6, 10–1 (tiebreak).[10] On September 14, Seles defeated Navratilova on an indoor court in New Orleans, Louisiana, 6–2, 6–4. On September 16, she defeated Navratilova on clay in Bucharest, Romania, 3–6, 6–3, 10–7 (tiebreak).[11]
In December 2007, Seles said to the press that Lindsay Davenport's successful return to the tour had inspired her to consider her own limited comeback to play Grand Slam tournaments and the major warm-up events for those tournaments. However, on February 14, 2008, Seles announced her official retirement from professional tennis.[12]
In January 2009, Seles was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame[13]
Seles was listed as the 13th greatest player of all time (men and women) by (U.S.) Tennis magazine and was also one of 15 women named by Australian Tennis magazine as the greatest champions of the last 30 years (players were listed chronologically).
Seles's career was affected by the stabbing incident; her trajectory was indicative of continuing future greatness. During the height of her career (1990 French Open through the 1993 Australian Open), she won 8 of the 11 Grand Slam singles tournaments she contested.
Until her loss to Martina Hingis at the 1999 Australian Open, Seles had a perfect record at the event (33–0), which is the longest undefeated streak for this tournament (although Margaret Court won 38 consecutive matches there from 1960 to 1968 after losing a match in 1959). It also marked her first defeat in Australia, having won the Sydney tournament in 1996. Seles was the first female tennis player to win her first six Grand Slam singles finals: 1990 French Open, 1991 Australian Open, 1991 French Open, US Open, 1992 Australian Open, and 1992 French Open. Seles was also the first female player since Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling in 1937 to win the women's singles title three consecutive years at the French Open. (Chris Evert, however, won the title the four consecutive times she played the tournament: 1974, 1975, 1979, and 1980; in 2007, Justine Henin won her third consecutive French Open singles title.) With eight Grand Slam singles titles before her 20th birthday, Seles holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a teenager.
Shortly after her retirement, Sports Illustrated writer Jon Wertheim summed up her later career:
Yet, transformed from champion to tragedienne, Seles became far more popular than she was while winning all those titles. It became impossible to root against her. At first, out of sympathy. Then, because she revealed herself to be so thoroughly thoughtful, graceful, dignified. When she quietly announced her retirement last week at age 34, she exited as perhaps the most adored figure in the sport's history. As happy endings go, one could do worse.[14]
Seles was a popular player, winning the inaugural Sanex Hero of the Year award in 2002. This award was voted by fans around the world. She was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009.[15]
Monica Seles is the Goodwill Ambassador of IIMSAM, the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition (IIMSAM) where she joins people like Diego Maradona, Tushar Gandhi, Sanjay Dutt, Carolina Herrera and Barack Obama's family to make Spirulina, a key driver to eradicate malnutrition, achieve food security and bridge the health divide in order to secure the UN Millennium Development Goals with a special priority for the developing and the least developed countries.[16]
On April 21, 2009, Seles released her memoir Getting A Grip: On My Body, My Mind, My Self which chronicles her bout with depression and food addiction after her stabbing, her father's cancer diagnosis and eventual death, her journey back to the game and a life beyond tennis.[17]
Since 2009, Seles has been dating billionaire Tom Golisano.[18][19]
These records were attained in the Open Era of tennis.
Grand Slam | Years | Record accomplished | Player tied |
Australian Open and French Open | 1990–93 | Simultaneous holder of 3 consecutive Australian Open and French Open singles titles | Stands alone |
Australian Open | 1991–93 | 3 consecutive wins | Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis |
French Open | 1990–92 | 3 consecutive wins | Justine Henin |
French Open | 1990 | Youngest ever champion (16 years old) | Stands alone |
Grand Slam tournaments | 1992 | Reached all four Grand Slam finals in a calendar year | Margaret Court Chris Evert Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf Martina Hingis Justine Henin |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Monica Seles |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Seles, Monica |
Alternative names | |
Short description | Serbian-American professional tennis player |
Date of birth | December 2, 1973 |
Place of birth | Novi Sad, Serbia (former Yugoslavia) |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Country | Germany[1] |
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Residence | Las Vegas, Nevada, US |
Born | (1969-06-14) 14 June 1969 (age 43) Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany |
Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) |
Weight | 60 kilograms (130 lb) |
Turned pro | 1982 |
Retired | 1999 |
Plays | Right-handed (one-handed backhand) |
Career prize money | US$21,891,306[2] (5th in all-time rankings) |
Int. Tennis HOF | 2004 (member page) |
Singles | |
Career record | 900–115 (88.7%) |
Career titles | 107 (3rd all-time) |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (17 August 1987) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | W (1988, 1989, 1990, 1994) |
French Open | W (1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999) |
Wimbledon | W (1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996) |
US Open | W (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996) |
Other tournaments | |
Championships | W (1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996) |
Olympic Games | Gold medal (1988) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 173–72 |
Career titles | 11 |
Highest ranking | No. 3 (3 March 1987) |
Grand Slam Doubles results | |
Australian Open | SF (1988, 1989) |
French Open | F (1986, 1987, 1989) |
Wimbledon | W (1988) |
US Open | SF (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989) |
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
Australian Open | 2R (1991) |
French Open | 2R (1994) |
Wimbledon | SF (1999) |
US Open | 1R (1984) |
Last updated on: N/A. |
Olympic medal record | ||
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Women's Tennis | ||
Competitor for West Germany | ||
Gold | 1988 Seoul | Singles |
Bronze | 1988 Seoul | Doubles |
Competitor for Germany | ||
Silver | 1992 Barcelona | Singles |
Stefanie Maria "Steffi" Graf[3] (born 14 June 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany) is a former World No. 1 German tennis player.
In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24. In 1988, she became the first and only tennis player (male or female) to achieve the Calendar Year Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year.
Graf was ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a record 377 total weeks—the longest period for which any player, male or female, has held the number-one ranking since the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals began issuing rankings. She also holds the open era record for finishing as the year-end World No. 1 the most times, having done so on eight occasions.[4] She won 107 singles titles, which ranks her third on the WTA's all-time list after Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (154 titles).
A notable feature of Graf's game was her versatility across all playing surfaces, having won each of the four Grand Slams at least four times, the only player to do so. She won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert) and seven Wimbledon singles titles (third behind Navratilova and Helen Wills Moody). She is the only singles player to have achieved a Calendar Year Grand Slam while playing on all three major types of tennis courts (grass courts, clay courts and hard courts), as the Calendar Year Grand Slams won by other players before her occurred when the Australian and US Opens were still played on grass. Graf reached thirteen consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, from the 1987 French Open through to the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. She played in 36 Grand Slam singles tournaments from the 1987 French Open, her first Grand Slam win, through the 1999 French Open, her last Grand Slam win, winning 22 titles. She reached a total of 31 Grand Slam singles finals, third overall behind Evert (34 finals) and Navratilova (32 finals).[citation needed]
Graf is considered by some to be the greatest female player. Billie Jean King said in 1999, "Steffi is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time."[5] Martina Navratilova has included Graf on her list of great players.[6] In December 1999, Graf was named the greatest female tennis player of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press.[7] Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named her as the best female player of the 20th century.[8]. In March 2012, Tennis Channel picked Graf as the greatest female tennis player ever in their list of 100 greatest tennis players of all times.[9]
Graf retired in 1999 while she was ranked World No. 3. She married former World No. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi in October 2001 and they have two children, Jaden Gil and Jaz Elle.
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Steffi Graf was introduced to tennis by her father Peter Graf, a car and insurance salesman and aspiring tennis coach, who taught his three-year-old daughter how to swing a wooden racket in the family's living room. She began practising on a court at the age of four and played in her first tournament at five. She soon began winning junior tournaments with regularity, and in 1982 she won the European Championships 12s and 18s.
Graf played in her first professional tournament in October 1982 at Stuttgart, Germany. She lost her first round match 6–4, 6–0 to Tracy Austin, a two-time US Open champion and former World No. 1 player. (Twelve years later, Graf defeated Austin 6–0, 6–0 during a second round match at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California, which was their second and last match against each other.)
At the start of her first full professional year in 1983, the 13-year-old Graf was ranked World No. 124. She won no titles during the next three years, but her ranking climbed steadily to World No. 98 in 1983, No. 22 in 1984, and No. 6 in 1985. In 1984, she first gained international attention when she almost upset the tenth seed, Jo Durie of the United Kingdom, in a fourth round Centre Court match at Wimbledon. In August as a 15-year-old (and youngest entrant) representing West Germany, she won the tennis demonstration event at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.[10]
Graf's schedule was closely controlled by her father, who limited her play so that she would not burn out. In 1985, for instance, she played only 10 events leading up to the US Open, whereas another up-and-coming star, Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina, who was a year younger than Graf, played 21. Peter also kept a tight rein on Graf's personal life. Social invitations on the tour were often declined as Graf's focus was kept on practising and match play. Working with her father and then-coach Pavel Složil, Graf typically practised for up to four hours a day, often heading straight from airports to practice courts. This narrow focus meant that Graf, already shy and retiring by nature[citation needed], made few friends on the tour in her early years, but it led to a steady improvement in her play.
In 1985 and early 1986, Graf emerged as the top challenger to the dominance of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. During that period, she lost six times to Evert and three times to Navratilova, all in straight sets. She did not win a tournament but consistently reached tournament finals and semifinals, with the highlight being her semifinal loss to Navratilova at the US Open.
On 13 April 1986, Graf won her first WTA tournament and beat Evert for the first time in the final of the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, South Carolina. (She never lost to Evert again, beating her a further seven times over the next three and a half years.) Graf then won her next three tournaments at Amelia Island, Charleston, and Berlin, culminating in a 6–2, 6–3 defeat of Navratilova in the final of the latter. At the French Open, Graf was the third seed but was seen by many as the tournament favorite. However, she caught a virus and lost to Hana Mandlíková in the quarterfinals 2–6, 7–6, 6–1. The illness caused her to miss Wimbledon, and an accident where she broke a toe several weeks later also curtailed her momentum. She returned to win a small tournament at Mahwah just before the US Open where, in one of the most anticipated matches of the year, she encountered Navratilova in a semifinal. The match was played over two days with Navratilova finally winning after saving three match points 6–1, 6–7, 7–6. Graf then won three consecutive indoor titles at Tokyo, Zürich, and Brighton, before once again contending with Navratilova at the season-ending Virginia Slims Championships in New York City. This time, Navratilova beat Graf 7–6, 6–3, 6–2.
Graf's Grand Slam breakthrough came in 1987. She started the year strongly, with six tournament victories heading into the French Open, the highlight being at the tournament in Miami, where she defeated Martina Navratilova in a semifinal and Chris Evert in the final and conceded only 20 games in the seven rounds of the tournament. In the French Open final, Graf defeated Navratilova, who was the World No. 1, 6–4, 4–6, 8–6 after beating Gabriela Sabatini in a three-set semifinal.
Graf then lost to Navratilova 7–5, 6–3 in the Wimbledon final, her first loss of the year. However, in the Federation Cup final in Vancouver, Canada, three weeks later, she defeated Evert easily 6–2, 6–1. The US Open ended anti-climactically as Navratilova defeated Graf in the final 7–6, 6–1.
Graf started 1988 by winning the Australian Open, defeating Chris Evert in the final 6–1, 7–6. Graf did not lose a set during the tournament and lost a total of only 29 games.
Graf lost twice to Gabriela Sabatini during the spring, once on hardcourts in Boca Raton, Florida, and once on clay at Amelia Island, Florida. Graf, however, won the tournament in San Antonio, Texas and retained her title in Miami, where she once again defeated Evert in the final. Graf then won the tournament in Berlin, losing only twelve games in five matches.
At the French Open, Graf successfully defended her title by defeating Natasha Zvereva 6–0, 6–0 in a 32-minute final.[11] That was the first double bagel in a Grand Slam final since 1911.[11] Zvereva, who had eliminated Martina Navratilova in the fourth round, won only thirteen points in the match.[11]
Next came Wimbledon, where Navratilova had won six straight titles. Graf was trailing Navratilova in the final 7–5, 2–0 before winning the match 5–7, 6–2, 6–1. She then won tournaments in Hamburg and Mahwah (where she lost only eight games all tournament).
At the US Open, Graf defeated Sabatini in a three-set final to win the Calendar Year Grand Slam, a feat previously performed by only two other women, Maureen Connolly Brinker in 1953 and Margaret Court in 1970.
Graf then defeated Sabatini 6–3, 6–3 in the gold medal match at the Olympic Games in Seoul and achieved what the media had dubbed the "Golden Slam".
Graf also won her only Grand Slam doubles title that year—at Wimbledon partnering Sabatini—and picked up a women's doubles Olympic bronze medal.
At the year-ending Virginia Slims Championships, Graf – hampered by illness – was upset by Pam Shriver, only her third loss of the year. She was named the 1988 BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.
Speculation was rife at the beginning of 1989 about the possibility of Graf winning another Grand Slam. Some noted observers, such as Margaret Court, suggested that Graf could achieve the feat a couple more times. And the year began as expected, with Graf extending her Grand Slam winning streak to five events at the Australian Open, defeating Helena Suková in the final. Her 6–3, 6–0 defeat of Gabriela Sabatini in a semifinal was described by veteran observer Ted Tinling as "probably the best tennis I've seen".[12]
Graf followed this with easy victories in her next four tournaments at Washington, D.C., San Antonio, Texas, Boca Raton, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. The Washington, D.C. tournament was notable because Graf won the first twenty points of the final against Zina Garrison.[13] In the Boca Raton final, Graf lost the only set she conceded to Chris Evert in their final seven matches.[14]
In the subsequent Amelia Island final on clay, Graf lost her first match of the year to Sabatini but returned to European clay with easy victories at Hamburg and Berlin.
Graf's Grand Slam winning streak ended at the French Open, where 17-year-old Spaniard Arantxa Sánchez Vicario beat Graf in three sets. Graf served for the match at 5–3 in the third set but lost the game at love and won only three more points in the match. She had struggled to beat Monica Seles in their semifinal 6–3, 3–6, 6–3.
Graf, however, recovered to defeat Martina Navratilova 6–2, 6–7, 6–1 in the Wimbledon final after defeating Seles 6–0, 6–1 in a fourth round match, Sánchez Vicario in a quarterfinal, and Chris Evert in a semifinal.
Graf warmed up for the US Open with easy tournament victories in San Diego and Mahwah. In her semifinal match at the US Open, Graf defeated Sabatini 3–6, 6–4, 6–2. In the final, Navratilova led 6–3, 4–2 before Graf rallied to win 3–6, 7–5, 6–1 for her third Grand Slam singles title of the year.
Victories at Zürich and Brighton preceded the Virginia Slims Championships, where Graf cemented her top-ranked status by beating Navratilova in the final 6–4, 7–5, 2–6, 6–2. Graf ended 1989 with an 86–2 match record and the loss of only twelve sets.
Graf defeated Mary Joe Fernandez in the final of the Australian Open, which was her eighth Grand Slam singles title in the last nine she contested. Her winning streak (unbeaten since the 1989 French Open loss to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario) continued with victories in Tokyo, Amelia Island, and Hamburg. In Berlin, she extended her unbeaten streak to 66 matches (second in WTA history to Martina Navratilova's 74) before losing the final to Monica Seles, 6–4, 6–3.
While the Berlin tournament was being played, the largest-circulation German tabloid, Bild, ran a story about an alleged scandal involving Graf's father. The difficulty of answering questions about the matter came to a head at a Wimbledon press conference, where Graf broke down in tears. Wimbledon authorities then threatened to immediately shut down any subsequent press conferences where questions about the issue were asked. Whether this scandal affected Graf's form is open to debate. In an interview with Stern magazine in July 1990, Graf stated, "I could not fight as usual."[15]
Graf again lost to Monica Seles in the final of the French Open 7–6, 6–4. Seles was behind 2–6 in the first set tiebreaker, but then came back to win six points in a row and take the set. At Wimbledon, Graf lost in the semifinals to Zina Garrison, who with this victory broke Graf's string of 13 consecutive Grand Slam finals. After victories in Montreal and San Diego, Graf reached the US Open final, where she lost in straight sets to Sabatini. Graf won four indoor tournaments after the US Open, but lost again to Sabatini in a Virginia Slims Championships semifinal. Even though Graf won only one Grand Slam singles title in 1990, she finished the year as the top ranked player.
A mixture of injury problems, personal difficulties, and loss of form made 1991 a tough year for Graf. Seles established herself as the new dominant player on the women's tour, winning the Australian Open, French Open, and US Open and, in March, ending Graf's record 186 consecutive-weeks hold on the World No. 1 ranking. Graf briefly regained the top ranking after winning at Wimbledon but lost it again after her loss to Navratilova at the US Open.
Graf lost an Australian Open quarterfinal to Jana Novotná, the first time she did not reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament since the 1986 French Open. She then lost to Gabriela Sabatini in her next three tournaments before winning the U.S. Hardcourt Championships in San Antonio, beating Monica Seles in the final. After losing a fifth straight time to Sabatini in Amelia Island, Florida, Graf once again defeated Seles in the Hamburg final. Following her tournament victory in Berlin, Graf suffered one of the worst defeats of her career in a French Open semifinal where she won only two games against Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and lost her first 6–0 set since 1984. Graf did, however, win her third Wimbledon title, defeating Sabatini in the final. Navratilova then defeated Graf 7–6, 6–7, 6–4 in a US Open semifinal, the first time she had beaten Graf in four years. Graf then won Leipzig, with her 500th career victory coming in a quarterfinal against Judith Wiesner. After winning two more indoor tournaments at Zürich and Brighton, she failed once again in the Virginia Slims Championships, losing her quarterfinal to Novotná. Soon after, she split with her long-time coach, Pavel Složil.
A bout of German measles forced Graf to miss the first major event of 1992, the Australian Open. Her year continued indifferently with losses in three of her first four tournaments, although she did win unconvincingly at Boca Raton, Florida. Victories at Hamburg and Berlin (beating Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the finals of both) prepared her for the French Open, where she defeated Sánchez Vicario in the semifinals after losing the first set 6–0. She then renewed her rivalry with Monica Seles in the final, which Seles won 10–8 in the third set. Seles won the match on her 5th match point; Graf came within 2 points of winning the match a few games earlier. At Wimbledon, after struggling through early-round three-setters against lowly-ranked Mariaan de Swardt and Patty Fendick, she easily defeated Natasha Zvereva in a quarterfinal, Sabatini in a semifinal, and Seles in the final 6–2, 6–1, with Seles playing in almost complete silence because of widespread media and player criticism of her grunting. Graf then won all five of her Fed Cup matches, helping Germany defeat Spain in the final by defeating Sánchez Vicario 6–4, 6–2. At the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Graf lost to Jennifer Capriati in the final and claimed the silver medal. At the US Open, Graf was upset in a quarterfinal by Sánchez Vicario 7–6(5), 6–3. Four consecutive indoor tournament victories in the autumn improved her year, but for the third consecutive year, she failed to win the Virginia Slims Championships, where she lost in the first round to Lori McNeil.
Monica Seles beat Graf in three sets in the final of the Australian Open 4–6, 6–3, 6–2. The burgeoning rivalry between them was then cut short. During a quarterfinal match between Seles and Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg, Seles was stabbed between the shoulder blades by a mentally ill German fan of Graf, Günter Parche. He claimed that he committed the attack to help Graf reclaim the World No. 1 ranking, which she did on 7 June 1993. More than two years elapsed before Seles competed again.
In the absence of Seles, Graf won three of four Grand Slam events to re-establish herself as the dominant player in women's tennis. It took some time, however, for Graf to separate herself from her challengers, with four losses in her first six tournaments of the year: two to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and one each to Seles and the 36 year-old Martina Navratilova. She struggled at the tournament in Berlin where she lost a 6–0 set to the unheralded Sabine Hack before defeating Mary Joe Fernandez and Gabriela Sabatini in three-set matches to claim her seventh title there in eight years. Nor was she at her best at the French Open but still managed to win her first title there since 1988 with a three-set victory over Fernandez in the final. The win elevated Graf to the World No. 1 ranking for the first time in 22 months. Her fifth Wimbledon title was aided by a celebrated meltdown in the final from Jana Novotná, who had a point on serve to go up 5–1 in the deciding set before losing the next five games. Graf had an injured right foot during that tournament (and for the next few months), finally resulting in surgery on 4 October.
In the meantime, she lost surprisingly to Nicole Bradtke of Australia in a Fed Cup match on clay before winning the tournament in San Diego and the tournament in Toronto in preparation for the US Open. She won there, beating Helena Suková comfortably in the final after eliminating Sabatini in a three-set quarterfinal. She won the tournament in Leipzig yet again the day before her foot operation, losing only two games to Novotná in the final. Graf lost to Conchita Martínez in her return tournament a month later in Philadelphia. However, she finished her year with a highlight, winning her first Virginia Slims Championships since 1989 by beating Sánchez Vicario in the final despite needing painkillers for a back injury.
Seemingly free of injury for the first time in years, Graf began the year by winning the Australian Open, where she defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the final with the loss of only two games. She then won her next four tournaments easily. In the Miami final, she lost her first set of the year—to Natasha Zvereva—after winning 54 consecutive sets. In the Hamburg final, she lost for the first time in 1994 after 36 consecutive match victories, losing to Sánchez Vicario in three sets. She then won her eighth German Open, but there were signs that her form was worsening as she almost lost to Julie Halard in a quarterfinal.Back-to-back losses followed; Graf lost to Mary Pierce in a French Open semifinal, 6–2, 6–2, and followed that with a first-round straight-sets loss at Wimbledon to Lori McNeil, her first loss in a first round Grand Slam tournament in ten years. Graf still managed to win San Diego the following month but aggravated a long-time back injury in beating Sánchez Vicario in the final. She then began to wear a back brace and was unsure about playing the US Open but elected to play while receiving treatment and stretching for two hours before each match. She made it to the final and took the first set there against Sánchez Vicario—Sanchez Vicario's last victory over Graf. Her back injury, however, flared up and she lost the next two sets. She took the following nine weeks off, returning only for the Virginia Slims Championships where she lost to Pierce in a quarterfinal.
Injury kept Graf out of the Australian Open. She came back to beat Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon. The US Open was Monica Seles's first Grand Slam event since the 1993 attack. Seles and Graf met in the final, with Graf winning 7–6, 0–6, 6–3. Graf then capped the year by beating countrywoman Anke Huber in a five-set final at the season-ending (6–1, 2–6, 6–1, 4–6, 6–3) in 2 hours 46 minutes. WTA Tour Championships.
In personal terms, 1995 was a difficult year for Graf, as she was accused by German authorities of tax evasion in the early years of her career. In her defense, she stated that her father Peter was her financial manager, and all financial matters relating to her earnings at the time had been under his control. As a result, Peter was sentenced to 45 months in jail. He was eventually released after serving 25 months. Prosecutors dropped their case against Steffi Graf in 1997, when she agreed to pay a fine of 1.3 million Deutsche Marks to the government and an unspecified charity.
Graf again missed the Australian Open because of injury and then successfully defended the three Grand Slam titles she won the year before. In a close French Open final, Graf again overcame Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, taking the third-set 10–8. Graf then had straight-sets wins against Sánchez Vicario in the Wimbledon final and Monica Seles in the US Open final. Graf also won her fifth and final Chase Championships title with a five set win over Martina Hingis. She was unable to participate in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta because of an injured left knee.[16]
The last few years of Graf's career were beset by injuries, particularly to her knees and back. She lost the World No. 1 ranking to Martina Hingis and failed to win a Grand Slam title for the first time in ten years. In 1997 Graf lost in the 4th round of Australian open in straight sets 2–6, 5–7 to Amanda Coetzer.[17] After several months injury lay off, Graf returned to play in the German Open in Berlin in front of a home crowd and had the worst defeat of her career in the quarter final, when Amanda Coetzer beat her in just 56 minutes 6–0, 6–1.[17][18] In the French Open Graf was again beaten by Amanda Coetzer in straight sets 6–1, 6–4.[19] Graf then skipped Wimbledon due to injury.
After missing almost half of the tour in 1998, Graf defeated World No. 2 Hingis and World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport en route to the Philadelphia title. At the first round of the season-ending Chase Championships, Graf defeated World No. 3 Jana Novotná.
At the beginning of 1999 Graf played the warm up event to the Australian Open in Sydney; she defeated Serena Williams in the 2nd round and Venus Williams in the quarter-finals before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the semi-final. Graf then went on to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open before losing to Monica Seles 7–5, 6–1. Graf stated after the match she was extremely nervous heading into match primarily because of how strongly Seles had started in their prior match at the 1998 Corel WTA Championships. In Indian Wells,1999 Graf lost to Serena Williams 3–6,6–3,5–7.[20] Serena hit 8 times more winners than Graf in this match.[21]
At the 1999 French Open, Graf reached her first Grand Slam final in three years and fought back from a set and two breaks down in the second set to defeat the top ranked Hingis in three sets for a memorable victory. Graf also became the first player in the open era to defeat the first, second, and third ranked players in the same Grand Slam tournament by defeating second ranked Davenport in the quarter-finals and third ranked Monica Seles in the semifinals. Graf said after the final that it would be her last French Open,[22] fueling speculation about her retirement.
Graf then reached her ninth Wimbledon singles final, losing to Davenport 6–4, 7–5. In mixed doubles at Wimbledon, Graf partnered with John McEnroe, but she withdrew at the semi-final stage to protect her knee in advance of the singles final.[23]
In August 1999, after retiring from a match in San Diego, Graf announced her retirement from the women's tour. She was ranked World No. 3 at that time. Graf said, "I have done everything I wanted to do in tennis. I feel I have nothing left to accomplish. The weeks following Wimbledon [in 1999] weren't easy for me. I was not having fun anymore. After Wimbledon, for the first time in my career, I didn't feel like going to a tournament. My motivation wasn't what it was in the past."[24]
Graf competed in one tie of World Team Tennis on the Houston Wranglers team. Graf was beaten in two out of three matches. Each match was one set. Graf lost her singles match to Elena Likhovtseva 5–4. She teamed with Ansley Cargill in women's doubles against Anna Kournikova and Likhovtseva but lost 5–2. She was successful in the mixed doubles match, however. Graf completely ruled out a return to professional tennis. "It was a lot of fun. It was not as I expected it to be."[citation needed]
Graf played a singles exhibition match against Kim Clijsters and a mixed doubles exhibition alongside husband Andre Agassi against Tim Henman and Clijsters as part of a test event and celebration for the newly installed roof over Wimbledon's Centre Court. She lost a lengthy one-set singles match to Clijsters and also the mixed doubles.
Graf participated in the World Team Tennis Smash Hits exhibition in Washington, D.C., to support The Elton John Aids Foundation. She and her husband, Andre Agassi, were on Team Elton John who competed against Team Billie Jean King. Graf played in the celebrity doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles before straining her left calf muscle and being replaced by Anna Kournikova.
Graf won seven singles titles at Wimbledon, six singles titles at the French Open, five singles titles at the US Open, and four singles titles at the Australian Open. Her overall record in 56 Grand Slam events was 282–34 (89 percent) (87–10 at the French Open, 75–8 at Wimbledon, 73–10 at the US Open, and 47–6 at the Australian Open). Her career prize-money earnings totalled US$21,895,277 (a record until Lindsay Davenport surpassed this amount in January 2008). Her singles win-loss record was 900–115 (88.7 percent).[25] She was ranked World No. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks (from August 1987 to March 1991, still the record in the women's game) and a record total 377 weeks overall. Graf also won 11 doubles titles.
Time span | Selected Grand Slam tournament records | Players matched |
---|---|---|
1988 Australian Open — 1988 Olympics |
Golden Slam | Stands alone |
1988 Australian Open — 1988 US Open |
Grand Slam | Margaret Court |
1987 French Open — 1988 Olympics |
Career Golden Slam | Stands alone |
1987 French Open — 1988 US Open |
Career Grand Slam | Margaret Court Billie Jean King Chris Evert Martina Navratilova Serena Williams |
1993 French Open — 1994 Australian Open |
Achieved a Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam in addition to already winning a Grand Slam | Stands alone |
1987 French Open — 1999 French Open |
22 titles | Stands alone |
1988 French Open | Double bagel win in a Grand Slam final | Stands alone |
1987 French Open — 1995 US Open |
4+ titles at all four Majors | Stands alone |
1987 French Open — 1990 French Open |
13 consecutive Grand Slam finals | Stands alone |
1999 French Open | Defeated the top 3 seeded players in the same tournament | Stands alone |
1988 Australian Open — 1993 US Open |
Reached the final of all four Grand Slams in a calendar year three times | Stands alone |
1988 Australian Open — 1996 US Open |
Won three different Grand Slam titles in straight sets | Chris Evert Lindsay Davenport |
Grand Slam tournaments | Time Span | Records at each Grand Slam tournament | Players matched |
---|---|---|---|
Australian Open | 1988–1990 | 3 consecutive titles | Margaret Court Evonne Goolagong Cawley Monica Seles Martina Hingis |
Australian Open | 1988–1989, 1994 | Won 3 Australian Open titles in straight sets | Evonne Goolagong |
Australian Open—French Open | 1988 | Won 2 Grand Slam titles in the same calendar year in straight sets | Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova Martina Hingis Serena Williams Justine Henin |
French Open | 1987–1999 | 9 finals overall | Chris Evert |
French Open | 1987–1990 | 4 consecutive finals | Chris Evert Martina Navratilova |
Time span | Other selected records | Players matched |
---|---|---|
1987–1991 | 186 consecutive weeks at No. 1 | Stands alone |
1987–1997 | 377 total weeks at No. 1 | Stands alone |
1987–1990 1993–1996 |
8 years ended as No. 1 | Stands alone |
1987, 1989 | Reached the final of every tournament played in a calendar year | Monica Seles |
The main weapons in Graf's game were her powerful inside-out forehand drive, which earned her the moniker "Fräulein Forehand," and her foot speed.[26] She often positioned herself in her backhand corner, and although this left her forehand wide open and vulnerable to attack, her court speed meant that only the most accurate shots wide to her forehand caused any trouble.
Graf also had a powerful backhand drive but over the course of her career tended to use this less frequently, opting more often for her very effective backhand slice. In baseline rallies, she used the slice almost exclusively. Her accuracy with the slice, both cross-court and down the line, and her ability to skid the ball and keep it low, enabled her to use it as an offensive weapon to set the ball up for her forehand put-aways.
She built her powerful and accurate serve up to 180 km/h (110 mph), making it one of the fastest serves in women's tennis, and was a capable volleyer.
In the 1990s, she had a long term relationship with racing car driver Michael Bartels.[27]
She married Andre Agassi on 22 October 2001, with only their mothers as witnesses.[28] Four days later Graf gave birth, six weeks prematurely, to their son Jaden Gil. Their daughter, Jaz Elle, was born 3 October 2003.
In 1991, the Steffi Graf Youth Tennis Center in Leipzig was dedicated.[29] She is the founder and chairperson of "Children for Tomorrow", a non-profit foundation for implementing and developing projects to support children who have been traumatized by war or other crises.[29]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Steffi Graf |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Graf, Steffi |
Alternative names | Graf, Stefanie Maria |
Short description | former
World No. 1 ranked female tennis player from Germany |
Date of birth | 14 June 1969 |
Place of birth | Mannheim, West Germany |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Serena Williams at the 2011 AEGON International |
|
Country | United States |
---|---|
Residence | Palm Beach Gardens, Florida[1] |
Born | (1981-09-26) September 26, 1981 (age 30) Saginaw, Michigan |
Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) |
Weight | 70.3 kg (155 lb) |
Turned pro | September 1995 |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Career prize money | US$ 36,019,574 (1st all-time among women athletes and 4th all-time among tennis athletes) |
Singles | |
Career record | 523–106 (83%) |
Career titles | 41 WTA[1] (10th in overall rankings) |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (July 8, 2002) |
Current ranking | No. 5 (May 28, 2012) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | W (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010) |
French Open | W (2002) |
Wimbledon | W (2002, 2003, 2009, 2010) |
US Open | W (1999, 2002, 2008) |
Other tournaments | |
Championships | W (2001, 2009) |
Olympic Games | QF (2008) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 153–20 (88.4%) |
Career titles | 20 |
Highest ranking | No. 1 (June 7, 2010) |
Grand Slam Doubles results | |
Australian Open | W (2001, 2003, 2009, 2010) |
French Open | W (1999, 2010) |
Wimbledon | W (2000, 2002, 2008, 2009) |
US Open | W (1999, 2009) |
Other Doubles tournaments | |
Olympic Games | Gold medal (2000, 2008) |
Mixed Doubles | |
Career record | 27–3 (90%) |
Career titles | 2 |
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results | |
Australian Open | F (1999) |
French Open | F (1998) |
Wimbledon | W (1998) |
US Open | W (1998) |
Last updated on: May 28, 2012. |
Olympic medal record | ||
---|---|---|
Women's tennis | ||
Competitor for the United States | ||
Gold | 2000 Sydney | Doubles |
Gold | 2008 Beijing | Doubles |
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player and a former world no. 1. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked her world no. 1 in singles on five separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002 and regained this ranking for the fifth time on November 2, 2009.[2] She is the only female player to have won over $35 million in prize money.
Her 27 Grand Slam titles places her ninth on the all-time list: 13 in singles, 12 in women's doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously and only the fifth woman in history to do so. She was also the first woman, along with sister Venus Williams, to hold all four Grand Slam doubles titles simultaneously since Martina Hingis did so in 1998. Her 13 Grand Slam singles titles is sixth on the all-time list.[3] Williams ranks fourth in Grand Slam women's singles titles won during the open era, behind Steffi Graf (22 titles) and Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (18 titles each).[3] She has won more Major titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles than any other active player, male or female.
Williams has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles.[4] She has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history.[5] Serena has played older sister Venus in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. They have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together. She is the first player, male or female, to win 5 Australian Open singles titles during the open era.
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Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is of African American heritage and is the youngest of Price's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (1972–2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and full sister Venus.[1] When the children were young, the family moved to the city of Compton in Los Angeles county, where Serena started playing tennis at the age of five.[6] Her father home-schooled Serena and her sister Venus[7] and to this day, Serena Williams was and remains coached by both her parents.[1]
Williams' family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach[8] when she was nine so that she could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who would provide additional coaching. Macci spotted the exceptional talents of the sisters. He did not always agree with Williams' father but respected that "he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls".[9] Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Williams was 10, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another motivation was racial, as he had allegedly heard parents of white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments.[10] At that time, Williams had a 46–3 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among under 10 players in Florida.[11] In 1995, when Serena was in the ninth grade, Richard pulled his daughters out of Macci's academy, and from then on took over all coaching at their home. When asked in 2000 whether having followed the normal path of playing regularly on the junior circuit would have been beneficial, Williams responded: "Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just tried a different road, and it worked for us."[11]
Williams is primarily a baseline player. Her game is built around taking immediate control of rallies with a powerful and consistent serve (considered by some to be the best in the women's game),[12] return of serve, and forceful groundstrokes from both her forehand and backhand swings. Williams' forehand is considered to be among the most powerful shots in the women's game as is her double-handed backhand. Williams strikes her backhand groundstroke using an open stance, and uses the same open stance for her forehand. Williams's aggressive play, a "high risk" style, is balanced in part by her serve, which combines great power and placement with very high consistency.[13] Her serve has been hit as hard as 128 mph (206.5 km/h), the second-fastest all-time among female players (Venus recorded the fastest with 129 mph).[citation needed] Serena also possesses a very solid volley and powerful overhead which is very useful for her net game. Although many think of Williams as only an offensive player, she also plays a strong defensive game.[14]
Williams's first professional event was in September 1995, at the age of 13, at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City. She lost in the first round of qualifying to world no. 149 Annie Miller in less than an hour of play and earned US$240 in prize money.
Williams did not play a tournament in 1996. The following year, she lost in the qualifying rounds of three tournaments, before winning her first main-draw match in November at the Ameritech Cup Chicago. Ranked world no. 304, she upset world no. 7 Mary Pierce and world no. 4 Monica Seles, recording her first career wins over top 10 players and becoming the lowest-ranked player in the open era to defeat two top 10 opponents in one tournament.[1] She ultimately lost in the semifinals to world no. 5 Lindsay Davenport. She finished 1997 ranked world no. 99.
Williams began 1998 at the Medibank International Sydney. As a qualifier ranked world no. 96, she defeated world no. 3 Davenport in the quarterfinals, before losing to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the semifinals. Williams made her debut in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open, where she defeated sixth-seeded Irina Spîrlea in the first round, before losing to sister Venus in the second round in the sisters' first professional match.[15] Williams reached six other quarterfinals during the year, but lost all of them, including her first match against world no. 1 Martina Hingis at the Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, and her second match against Venus at the Italian Open in Rome. She failed to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam tournament the remainder of the year, losing in the fourth round of the French Open to Sánchez Vicario, and the third round of both Wimbledon and the US Open, to Virginia Ruano Pascual and Spîrlea, respectively. She did, however, win the mixed doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open with Max Mirnyi, completing the Williams family's sweep of the 1998 mixed doubles Grand Slam tournaments. Williams won her first professional title in doubles in Oklahoma City with Venus, becoming the third pair of sisters to win a WTA title.[1] The Williams sisters won two more doubles titles together during the year. Serena finished the year ranked world no. 20 in singles.
Williams lost in the third round of the 1999 Australian Open to Sandrine Testud. The following month, she won her first professional singles title, when she defeated Australian Open runner-up Amélie Mauresmo, 6–2, 3–6, 7–6, in the final of the Open Gaz de France in Paris. With Venus also winning the IGA Superthrift Classic in Oklahoma City that day, the pair became the first sisters to win professional tournaments in the same week.[16] A month later, Serena won her first Tier I singles title at the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California by defeating world no. 7 Steffi Graf, 6–3, 3–6, 7–5, in the final. At the following tournament, the Tier I Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne, Williams defeated world no. 1 Martina Hingis in the semifinals, before Venus ended her 16-match winning streak in the first all-sister singles final in WTA history.[1] On April 5, 1999, Serena made her top-10 debut at world no. 9.
Williams played three tournaments during the 1999 European spring clay court season. She lost in the quarterfinals of the Tier I Italian Open in Rome to World No. 1 Hingis and in the quarterfinals of the Tier I German Open in Berlin to World No. 7 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. Serena and Venus won the women's doubles title at the French Open, but Serena was upset by Mary Joe Fernandez in the third round of the singles competition. She then missed Wimbledon because of injury.
When she returned to the tour, Williams won a Fed Cup singles match, before playing two tournaments during the 1999 North American summer hard-court season. She won the JPMorgan Chase Open in Los Angeles, defeating world no. 1 Hingis in the semifinals and Julie Halard-Decugis in the final. Williams was seeded seventh at the US Open, where she defeated world no. 4 Monica Seles, world no. 2 Lindsay Davenport, and world no. 1 Hingis to become the second African-American woman (after Althea Gibson in 1958) to win a Grand Slam singles tournament.[1] The Williams sisters also won the doubles title at this tournament, their second Grand Slam title together.
To complete 1999, Williams won a doubles match in the Fed Cup final against Russia, her third tournament of the year at the Grand Slam Cup in Munich, and lost in the second round of the tournament in Filderstadt. Williams ended the year ranked world no. 4 in just her second full year on the main tour.
Williams started 2000 by losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open to 16th seeded Elena Likhovtseva. She failed to defend her titles in Paris and Indian Wells, although she did win the Faber Grand Prix in Hanover. Williams missed the French Open because of injury. She returned at Wimbledon, where she lost to eventual champion Venus in the semifinals after Serena had lost just 13 games in advancing to the second Grand Slam semifinal of her career. The Williams sisters teamed to win the doubles title at the event. Williams successfully defended her title in Los Angeles in August, defeating world no. 1 Hingis in the semifinals and world no. 2 Davenport in the final. She reached the final of the Du Maurier Open in Montreal, Canada the following week, where an injury forced her to retire from her match with Hingis. Her defense of the US Open title ended when she lost in the quarterfinals to second-seeded Davenport. Williams teamed with Venus to win the gold medal in doubles at the Sydney Olympics in September. She then won her third singles title of the year the following week at the Toyota Princess Cup in Tokyo. She finished the year ranked world no. 6.
Williams played two tournaments in Australia at the beginning of 2001, losing to world no. 1 Hingis in the quarterfinals of both the tournament in Sydney and the Australian Open. Serena and her sister Venus won the women's doubles title at the latter tournament, becoming only the fifth doubles team in history to win all four Grand Slam women's doubles titles during their career, a "Career Grand Slam".
She did not play again until March, when she defeated Kim Clijsters in the final of the Tier I Tennis Masters Series in Indian Wells, California. She advanced to the final there when Venus withdrew just before the start of their semifinal match. Venus claimed that an injury prevented her from playing, but the withdrawal was controversial. Neither Williams sister has entered the tournament since.[17] The following week at the Tier I Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Williams lost to Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals.
Williams did not play a clay-court tournament before the 2001 French Open, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Capriati, 2–6, 7–5, 2–6. Williams also did not play a grass-court tournament before Wimbledon, where she again lost in the quarterfinals to Capriati, 7–6, 5–7, 3–6, marking the fourth consecutive Grand Slam tournament at which Williams had exited in the quarterfinals.
Williams played three tournaments during the 2001 North American summer hard-court season. After losing in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Los Angeles, Williams captured her second title of the year at the Tier I Rogers Cup in Toronto, defeating Seles in the semifinals and world no. 3 Capriati in the final. Williams was seeded tenth at the US Open, where she defeated world no. 6 and Wimbledon runner-up Justine Henin in the fourth round, world no. 3 Davenport in the quarterfinals, and world no. 1 Hingis in the semifinals, before losing to sister Venus in the final. That was the first Grand Slam final contested by two sisters during the open era.
At the 2001-ending Sanex Championships in Munich, Williams defeated Silvia Farina Elia, Henin, and Testud en route to the final. She then won the championship by walkover when Davenport withdrew before the start of the final because of a knee injury. Williams finished 2001 at world no. 6 for the second straight year.
Injury forced Williams to retire from her semifinal match at the Medibank International Sydney and to withdraw from the 2002 Australian Open. She won her first title of the year at the State Farm Women's Tennis Classic in Scottsdale, USA, defeating world no. 2 Jennifer Capriati in the final. She then won the Tier I Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne for the first time, becoming one of three players in the open era to defeat the world's top 3 at one tournament,[1] after beating world no. 3 Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals, world no. 2 and sister Venus in the semifinals, and world no. 1 Capriati in the final. Her 6–2, 6–2 win over Venus was her second career win over her sister.
Williams played three clay court tournaments before the 2002 French Open. Her first tournament was at Charleston, where she was the third seed. Serena reached the quarterfinals after wins over Jennifer Hopkins and Nathalie Dechy, but eventually lost to world no. 30, Patty Schnyder, 6–2, 4–6, 5–7. She reached her first clay-court final in May, at the Eurocard German Open in Berlin, losing to Justine Henin in a third set tiebreak. The following week, Williams won her first clay court title at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, defeating Capriati in the semifinals and Henin in the final.[18] This raised her ranking to a new high of world no. 3. Williams, as the third seed at the French Open, made the last eight at the tournament with wins over Martina Sucha, Dally Randriantefy, Janette Husárová, and a three-set win over Vera Zvonareva. In her quarterfinal match, she defeated '00 champion, Mary Pierce, 6–1, 6–1. In the semifinals, she faced defending champion and world no. 1, Jennifer Capriati. After an outstanding display of tennis, Williams advanced to her first French Open final, 3–6, 7–6, 6–2. In the final, she faced world no. 2 and older sister, Venus. Serena won in the final, 7–5, 6–3, to claim her second Grand Slam title, her first in almost two and a half years. Serena rose to a career high of no. 2 after the win, second only to older sister Venus
At the 2002 Wimbledon Championships, Williams defeated Evie Dominikovic, Francesca Schiavone, Els Callens, and Chanda Rubin to reach her third Wimbledon quarterfinal. In her next match, Williams breezed past Daniela Hantuchová, 6–3, 6–2, and Amélie Mauresmo, 6–2, 6–1, to reach the final for the first time. There, she again defeated defending champion and no. 1 Venus, 7–6, 6–3, to win a Grand Slam singles title without dropping a set for the first time in her career. This victory earned Williams the world no. 1 ranking, dethroning her sister and becoming only the second African-American woman to hold that ranking.[1] The Williams sisters also won the doubles title at the tournament, the fifth Grand Slam doubles title for the pair.
Williams played just one tournament between Wimbledon and the US Open, losing in the quarterfinals of the JPMorgan Chase Open in Los Angeles to Chanda Rubin, ending a 21-match winning streak. As the top-seeded player at the US Open, she defeated Corina Morariu, future rival Dinara Safina, Nathalie Dechy, and Dája Bedáňová to make her fourth consecutive quarterfinal, where she crushed Daniela Hantuchová, 6–2, 6–1, to book a place in the semifinals against former champion and no. 1 Lindsay Davenport. It marked the fourth consecutive time she face Davenport at the US Open. After a tight second set, Serena made her third US Open final in four years, where she faced Venus once more. Serena won the US Open title for the second time with a 6–4, 6–3 win in the final, making it her fourth Grand Slam singles title to date.
Williams won two consecutive singles titles in the fall, defeating Kim Clijsters to win the Toyota Princess Cup in Tokyo, and Anastasia Myskina to win the Sparkassen Cup in Leipzig, Germany. She reached the final at the year-end Home Depot Championships, where she lost to fifth seeded Clijsters in straight sets, ending her 18-match winning streak.
Williams finished 2002 with a 56–5 record, eight singles titles, and the world no. 1 ranking. She was the first African-American (male or female) to end a year with that ranking since Althea Gibson in 1958. She was the first woman to win three Grand Slam titles in one year since Hingis in 1997.[1]
At the 2003 Australian Open, Williams went on to reach the semifinals for the first time, where she recovered from 5–2 down in the third set and saved two match points, before defeating Clijsters. She faced her sister Venus for the fourth consecutive Grand Slam final and won, 7–6, 3–6, 6–4, to become the sixth woman in the open era to complete a Career Grand Slam, joining Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Margaret Court. She also became the fifth woman to hold all Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously, joining Maureen Connolly Brinker, Court, Graf, and Navratilova.[19] The Williams sisters won their sixth Grand Slam doubles title together at this event.
Williams then captured singles titles at the Open Gaz de France in Paris and the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, defeating Clijsters in the semifinals and Capriati in the final. The following week, Williams lost the final at the clay-court Family Circle Cup in Charleston, USA to Henin, her first loss of the year after 21 wins. She also lost to Mauresmo in the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. Despite these losses, Williams was the top seed at the French Open, where she lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Henin, 2–6, 6–4, 5–7, marking Williams's first loss in a Grand Slam tournament since 2001. The match was controversial, as Williams questioned Henin's sportsmanship, and spectators applauded Williams's errors.[20] She was know to be dating [Larar Arrington] at the time.
Williams rebounded from the loss at the 2003 Wimbledon Championships, defeating Henin in the semifinals and Venus in the final, 4–6, 6–4, 6–2. This was Williams' second consecutive Wimbledon title and her sixth Grand Slam singles title overall. This was her last tournament of the year, as knee surgery prevented her from competing in the year's remaining events, including the US Open. As a result, she lost the world no. 1 ranking to Clijsters in August, having held it for 57 consecutive weeks. Williams finished the year ranked world no. 3 and with four titles. On September 14, 2003, while Williams was still recovering from surgery, her sister Yetunde Price was murdered.
Williams withdrew from the Australian Open to continue rehabilitating her left knee. She then withdrew from further tournaments, which generated speculation that she was losing interest in the sport.[21] After eight months away from the tour, Williams began her comeback at the Tier I NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, where she defeated 16-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova in the fourth round and world no. 8 Elena Dementieva in the final. This was the third consecutive year that Williams had won this tournament.
She then played three clay-court tournaments leading up to the French Open. She lost in the quarterfinals of the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida, and, the following week at the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, she withdrew before her third-round match because of an injured knee. She was away from the tour for four weeks before playing the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, where she lost to world no. 9 Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals, 4–6, 4–6. Although ranked world no. 7, she was seeded second at the French Open. She won her first four matches over players ranked outside the top 50, before Capriati beat her in the quarterfinals,3–6, 6–2, 3–6. This was the first time she had lost before the semifinals at a Grand Slam singles tournament since Wimbledon in 2001.
She was seeded first at Wimbledon, even though her ranking had dropped to world no. 10. She reached the final, where she was defeated by 13th-seeded Sharapova 1–6, 4–6. This loss caused her ranking to drop out of the top 10 for the first time since early 1999.
Williams reached her third final of the year at the JPMorgan Chase Open in Los Angeles on hard courts. She lost there to Lindsay Davenport, 1–6, 3–6, which was her first loss to Davenport since the 2000 US Open. Williams then withdrew before her quarterfinal match at the Acura Classic in San Diego with another left knee injury. This injury caused her to miss both the Tier I Rogers AT&T Cup in Montreal and the Athens Olympics. She returned for the US Open, where she was seeded third even though she was ranked world no. 11. She lost there in the quarterfinals to world no. 8 Capriati, 6–2, 4–6, 4–6. This match featured several missed line calls, including one that led to the suspension of the chair umpire for the remainder of the tournament. This match is commonly referred to as the impetus for the current challenge system.[22][23]
Williams played only three tournaments the remainder of the year. She won her second title of the year at the China Open in Beijing, in which she defeated US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. Five weeks later, she lost in the second round of the tournament in Linz, Austria to world no. 73 Alina Jidkova, but still qualified for the WTA Tour Championships. In the round-robin phase of the tournament, she defeated world no. 5 Dementieva, lost to world no. 1 Davenport, and defeated world no. 3 Anastasia Myskina. She lost to world no. 6 Sharapova in the final, 6–4, 2–6, 4–6. Williams trailed 5–2 in the second set, when she asked for treatment of an abdominal injury that caused her to serve around 65 mph. She led 4–0 in the third set, before Sharapova won the last six games of the match.[24] Williams finished 2004 ranked world no. 7, but did not win a Grand Slam singles tournament for the first time since 2001.
At the 2005 Australian Open, Williams rejected suggestions that she and sister Venus were a declining force in tennis, following Venus's early exit at the tournament.[25] In the quarterfinals, Williams defeated second-seeded Mauresmo, 6–2, 6–2. In the semifinals, she saved three match points in defeating fourth-seeded Sharapova, 2–6, 7–5, 8–6. In the final, Williams defeated world no. 1 Davenport, 2–6, 6–3, 6–0, to win her second Australian Open singles title and seventh Grand Slam singles title. The win moved Williams back to world no. 2, and she stated that she was now targeting the no. 1 spot.[26]
She did not, however, reach the final at any of her next five tournaments. She withdrew before her quarterfinal match at the Open Gaz de France in Paris, citing a stomach illness.[27] Three weeks later, she retired from her semifinal match with Jelena Janković at the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open, citing a strained tendon in her right shoulder.[28] Four weeks later, she lost to sister Venus for the first time since 2001 in the quarterfinals of the Tier I NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne, 1–6, 6–7. The following week, a left ankle injury forced her to retire from her quarterfinal match on clay at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island. Five weeks away from the tour did not improve her results, as she lost in the second round of the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome to Francesca Schiavone, 6–7, 1–6. The ankle injury also caused her to miss the French Open.[29]
She returned for Wimbledon as the fourth seeded player, but, after struggling through her first two matches in three sets, she was defeated in the third round by world no. 85 Jill Craybas, 3–6, 6–7.
After winning her first match at the Tier I Rogers Cup in Toronto, a recurrence of her left knee injury caused her to withdraw from the tournament. At the US Open, Williams lost to her sister Venus in the fourth round, 6–7, 2–6. This was the earliest the sisters had met in a Grand Slam tournament since their first meeting at the 1998 Australian Open. Williams played just one more match the remainder of the year, a loss to world no. 127 Sun Tiantian at the tournament in Beijing. She failed to qualify for the year-end championship for the first time since 1998. She finished the year ranked world no. 11, her first time finishing outside of the top 10 since 1998.
Williams did not participate in any of the official warm-up tournaments for the 2006 Australian Open.[30] Williams was the defending champion at the Australian Open, but fell to world no. 17 Daniela Hantuchová in the third round, 1–6, 6–7.[30] She then withdrew from tournaments in Tokyo (citing her lack of fitness)[31] and Dubai and from the Tier I NASDAQ-100 Open in Key Biscayne (citing a knee injury and lack of fitness).[32] On April 10, her ranking fell out of the top 100 for the first time since November 16, 1997. Shortly after, she announced that she would miss both the French Open and Wimbledon because of a chronic knee injury. She said that she would not be able to compete before "the end of the summer", on doctor's orders.[33]
Williams returned to the Tour in July at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati. Ranked world no. 139 because of her inactivity, she defeated world no. 11 Myskina in the first round, 6–2, 6–2, before losing in the semifinals to eventual champion Vera Zvonareva. She also reached the semifinals in Los Angeles, losing to world no. 28 Janković in straight sets.
At the US Open, Williams was unseeded in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 1998 and needed a wildcard to enter the tournament because her ranking was too low. She lost to top-seeded Mauresmo in the fourth round, 4–6, 6–0, 2–6.[30] She did not play again in 2006, ending the year ranked world no. 95. This was her lowest year-end ranking since 1997. Williams played just four tournaments in 2006.
Williams began 2007 with renewed confidence, stating her intention to return to the top of the rankings,[34] a comment former player and commentator Pat Cash branded "deluded."[35]
Williams lost in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Hobart, Australia, a warm-up for the Australian Open.[36] Williams was unseeded at the Australian Open because of her world no. 81 ranking and was widely regarded as "out of shape."[37] In the third round, however, Williams defeated fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova, which was her first win over a top-10 player since defeating Lindsay Davenport in the 2005 Australian Open final. In the final, Williams defeated top-seeded Maria Sharapova, 6–1, 6–2[38] to win her third Australian Open singles title and her eighth Grand Slam singles title. Williams dedicated the title to her deceased sister Yetunde.[38] Her performance in the final was described by TENNIS.com as "one of the best performances of her career"[37] and by BBC Sport as "arguably the most powerful display ever seen in women's tennis."[39]
Williams next played at the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida in late March. In the final, Williams defeated world no. 1 Justine Henin, 0–6, 7–5, 6–3 after saving 2 match points at 40–15 in the second set.[40]
At the Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina on clay courts, Williams retired from her second-round match because of a groin pull. The following week, Williams won her first singles match in the first round Fed Cup tie against Belgium on hard courts,[41] but withdrew from the second singles match to rest her knee. Williams played only one clay-court tournament in Europe before the French Open. In Rome at the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Williams lost to 14th-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the quarterfinals, 3–6, 6–2, 6–7.[41] After the tournament, however, she re-entered the top 10 at world no. 9. As the eighth seed at the French Open, Williams lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Henin, 4–6, 3–6.[41] Williams said her performance was "hideous and horrendous" and worse than ever.[42] She also said that she felt "violated".[43]
Despite the loss, Williams was one of the favorites for the Wimbledon title.[44] During her fourth round match against Daniela Hantuchová, Williams collapsed from an acute muscle spasm at 5–5 in the second set. After a medical timeout and holding serve to force a tiebreak, rain forced play to be suspended for nearly two hours. When the players returned, Williams won the match, 6–2, 6–7, 6–2.[45] Williams then lost her quarterfinal match with world no. 1 Henin, 4–6, 6–3, 3–6. Williams started the match with a heavily taped calf and was forced to use a one-handed backhand slice because of a left thumb injury. Williams was criticized for claiming after the match that she would have beaten Henin had Williams been healthy.[46] After Wimbledon, Williams moved up to world no. 7, her highest ranking since 2005.
Because of the thumb injury, Williams did not play a tournament between Wimbledon and the US Open.[41] At the US Open, she beat 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli in the fourth round,[41] but lost her third consecutive Grand Slam singles quarterfinal to Henin, 6–7, 1–6.[41]
In October, Williams lost in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Stuttgart to world no. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova.[41] Williams then reached her third final of the year at the Tier I Kremlin Cup in Moscow, defeating Kuznetsova in the semifinals, before losing to Elena Dementieva.[41] Nevertheless, Williams's performances at these tournaments raised her ranking to world no. 5 and qualified her for the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid. Her participation there was short. Because of injury, she retired from her first match with Anna Chakvetadze, after losing the first set, and then withdrew from the tournament.[47] Williams finished 2007 as World No. 7 and the top-ranked American for the first time since 2003.[41]
Williams started 2008 by participating on the U.S. team that won the Hopman Cup for the fifth time in Perth, Australia.[48] Williams was the seventh seed at the Australian Open, but lost in the quarterfinals to world no. 4 and third-seeded Jelena Janković, 3–6, 4–6.[49] This was her fourth straight loss in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam singles tournament. In the women's doubles event, Serena and her sister Venus lost in the quarterfinals to the seventh-seeded team of Zheng Jie and Yan Zi.
Williams then withdrew from three tournaments because of an urgent need for dental surgery.[50] Upon her return to the Tour, Williams won three consecutive singles titles. At the Tier II tournament in Bangalore, India, Serena defeated sister Venus in the semifinals, 6–3, 3–6, 7–6,[49] after Serena saved a match point at 6–5 in the third set. This was the first time they had played each other since the fourth round of the 2005 US Open. Serena then defeated Schnyder in the final.[49] At the Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Williams won her fifth career singles title there, tying Steffi Graf for the most singles titles at this tournament. Williams defeated world no. 1 Henin in the quarterfinals, world no. 3 Kuznetsova in the semifinals, and world no. 4 Janković in the final.[49] This was her 30th career singles title.
At the clay-court Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, Williams defeated, for the fourth consecutive time, second-seeded Sharapova in the quarterfinals.[49] In the final, Williams defeated Vera Zvonareva[49] to capture her tenth career Tier I title and first clay-court title since the 2002 French Open. Her 17-match winning streak was ended by Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals of the Tier I Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, 6–2, 1–6, 6–7.[49] Williams was the fifth-seeded player at the Tier I Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome and made it to the quarterfinals, where Alizé Cornet received a walkover over Williams[49] because of a back injury.
Williams was the fifth-seeded player at the French Open. Although she was the only former winner of this tournament in this year's draw, following the sudden retirement of four-time champion Henin, she lost in the third round to 27th-seeded Katarina Srebotnik, 4–6, 4–6.[49]
At Wimbledon, the sixth-seeded Williams reached the finals for the first time in four years. She defeated former world no. 1 and 2006 Wimbledon champion Amélie Mauresmo in the third round, before losing the final to her older sister Venus in straight sets.[49] This was the first Grand Slam final in which the Williams sisters had played each other since 2003. Serena and Venus then teamed to win the women's doubles title without dropping a set the entire tournament, their first Grand Slam women's doubles title since 2003.
Williams then played four World Team Tennis matches for the Washington Kastles,[51] contributing 49 points for her team.
Williams was seeded first at the tournament in Stanford, California, but retired from her semifinal match against qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak while trailing 6–2, 3–1[49] because of a left knee injury. That injury caused Williams to withdraw from the tournament in Los Angeles the following week.
Playing in the singles draw at the Olympics for the first time in Beijing, Williams was the fourth-seeded player in singles, but lost to fifth-seeded and eventual gold-medalist Dementieva in the quarterfinals, 6–3, 4–6, 3–6.[49] Serena and her sister Venus won the gold medal in doubles to add to their victory at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, beating the Spanish team of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual in the final.
Williams was seeded fourth at the US Open and defeated her seventh-seeded sister Venus in the quarterfinals, 7–6, 7–6. Serena trailed 5–3 in both sets and saved two set points in the first set and eight set points in the second set. Williams then defeated Safina in the semifinals and second-seeded Jelena Janković, 6–4, 7–5, in the final, after saving four set points at 5–3 in the second set. This was her third US Open and ninth Grand Slam singles title. This victory returned her to the world no. 1 ranking for the first time since 2003.[52]
At the Tier II Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Williams was the top seed, but lost to world no. 30 Li Na in the second round, 6–0, 1–6, 4–6. Serena also played doubles there with her sister Venus, but they withdrew after winning their first round match because of a left ankle injury to Serena. On October 3, Williams announced her withdrawal from the Tier I Kremlin Cup in Moscow, citing a continuing left ankle injury and a desire to give her body time to recover from a packed playing schedule.[53] Because of her withdrawal, she lost the world no. 1 ranking to Janković.
Williams defeated Safina in her first round-robin match at the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, before losing to her sister Venus, 5–7, 6–1, 6–0 in her second round-robin match. She then withdrew from her match against Dementieva, citing a stomach muscle injury. She ended the year ranked world no. 2 and with four singles titles, her strongest performance in both respects since 2003.
At the Medibank International in Sydney, top-seeded Williams lost in the semifinals to Russian Elena Dementieva for the third consecutive time, 3–6, 1–6.
Williams was seeded second at the Australian Open. She claimed her tenth Grand Slam singles title by defeating Dinara Safina in the final, 6–0, 6–3, in 59 minutes. This win returned her to the world no. 1 ranking and resulted in her becoming the all-time career prize money leader in women's sports, overtaking golfer Annika Sörenstam. In women's doubles, Serena and her sister Venus captured the title for the third time.
At the Open GDF SUEZ in Paris, Williams withdrew from the tournament before her scheduled semifinal with Dementieva because of a knee injury. Williams was the top seed at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, a Premier 5 event on the tour. She defeated former world no. 1 Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals, before losing to her sister Venus in the semifinals, 1–6, 6–2, 6–7.
At the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, a Premier Mandatory event, Williams was upset in the final by 11th seeded Victoria Azarenka. This was the first of four consecutive losses for Williams, the longest losing streak of her career.[54] She was defeated in her opening match at her first three clay-court events of the year, including the Premier 5 Internazionali d'Italia in Rome and the Premier Mandatory Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. She lost the world no. 1 ranking to Safina on April 20. Despite not having won a match on clay in 2009 before the French Open, she reached the quarterfinals there, before losing to the eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6–7, 7–5, 5–7. This ended her 18-match Grand Slam tournament winning streak.
She rebounded at Wimbledon, saving a match point in defeating fourth seeded Dementieva in the semifinals, 6–7, 7–5, 8–6. In the final, Serena defeated her sister Venus, 7–6, 6–2, to win her third Wimbledon title and her 11th Grand Slam singles title. Although Williams was now holding three of the four Grand Slam singles titles, she continued to trail Safina in the WTA rankings, a fact Williams publicly mocked.[55] Williams and her sister Venus teamed to win the women's doubles title at Wimbledon for the second consecutive year, their ninth Grand Slam title in women's doubles.
Following Wimbledon, Williams played two Premier 5 tournaments before the US Open. She lost in the third round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati and in the semifinals, to world no. 5 Dementieva, of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
She was seeded second at the US Open, where she lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Kim Clijsters amid controversy involving shouting at a line judge when defending match point, an offense which ultimately cost Williams the point and therefore the match. She continued in the doubles competition, teaming up with Venus to win their third Grand Slam doubles title of the year and tenth of their career.[56][57]
Williams played only two tournaments after the US Open. At the Premier Mandatory China Open in Beijing, she was defeated in the third round by Nadia Petrova. Williams won all three of her round-robin matches at the year-end WTA Tour Championships in Doha, Qatar, defeating world no. 7 Venus Williams, world no. 5 Dementieva, and world no. 3 Kuznetsova. She saved a match point against Venus, before winning in a third-set tiebreak. She then advanced to the final, when US Open runner-up Wozniacki retired from their semifinal match while trailing, 6–4, 0–1. In the final, Williams played Venus for the second time in four days, winning once again, 6–2, 7–6, against her tired and error-stricken sister.[58] This was Serena's second singles title at this event.
Williams finished the year ranked world no. 1 for the second time in her career, having played in 16 tournaments, more than any other year. She also broke the record previously set by Justine Henin for the most prize money earned by a female tennis player in one year, with Williams earning $6,545,586. In doubles, the Williams sisters finished the year ranked world no. 2, despite playing only six tournaments as a pair. She won five Grand Slam titles, putting her total Grand Slam titles at 23.
Williams was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press[59] in a landslide vote (66 of 158 votes – no other candidate received more than 18 votes). She also was the International Tennis Federation World Champion in singles and doubles.[60]
Williams's first scheduled tournament was the Medibank International Sydney. She defeated Frenchwoman Aravane Rezaï in the semifinals, 3–6, 7–5, 6–4, after trailing 5–2 in the second set and being two points from defeat. She then lost the final to world no. 5 and defending champion Elena Dementieva, 3–6, 2–6.
At the Australian Open, Williams was the defending champion in both singles and doubles. She reached the singles quarterfinals without losing a service game or a set, where she eliminated Victoria Azarenka, 4–6, 7–6, 6–2, after trailing 4–0 in the second set. In the semifinals, Williams defeated 16th seeded Li Na, 7–6, 7–6, on her fifth match point to reach her fifth final in Melbourne and her fifteenth Grand Slam singles final. She then defeated 2004 champion Justine Henin, 6–4, 3–6, 6–2, for her twelfth Grand Slam singles title. This was the first time that Henin and Williams had played each other in a Grand Slam tournament final.[61] Williams is the first female player to win consecutive Australian Open singles titles since Jennifer Capriati in 2001–02.[3] In doubles, Serena and Venus successfully defended their title by defeating the top-ranked team of Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the final, 6–4, 6–3.
A leg injury then caused Williams to withdraw from five consecutive tournaments, including the Premier 5 Dubai Tennis Championships and the Premier Mandatory Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne. She returned to the WTA Tour at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, where she lost to Jelena Janković in the semifinals, 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(5–7), after failing to convert a match point while serving at 5–4 in the third set, and then surrendering a 5–2 lead in the deciding tiebreaker.
At the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, she received a first-round bye. In her first match, she made 73 unforced errors in defeating Vera Dushevina in the longest match of her career, 3 hours, 26 minutes, 6–7, 7–6, 7–6. Williams saved a match point at 6–5 in the second set, then injured her upper leg early in the third set. She then fell to 16th seeded Nadia Petrova, 6–4, 2–6, 3–6. Williams won only two of her eighteen opportunities to break Petrova's serve. She teamed with Venus to win the doubles title.
At the French Open, she lost to Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals, 3–6, 7–6, 6–8. Williams made 46 unforced errors and squandered a match point at 5–4 in the final set. It was the first Grand Slam tournament that Williams had not won or been defeated by the eventual champion since the 2008 French Open. Williams had not advanced past the quarterfinals at this event since 2003. She also played doubles with Venus as the top seeds. Their defeat of Huber and Anabel Medina Garrigues in the semifinals improved their doubles ranking to world no. 1. They then defeated 12th seeds Květa Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik in the final, 6–2, 6–3, to win their fourth consecutive Grand Slam women's doubles title.
Her next tournament was Wimbledon, where she defeated Russian Vera Zvonareva in the final, 6–3, 6–2, without facing a break point and breaking the serve of Zvonareva three times.[62][63] She did not lose a set in the tournament.[64] After the match, Martina Navratilova said that Williams is in the top 5 of all the women's tennis players in all of history, which she said that "it's not just about how many Slams you win or how many tournaments you win—it's just your game overall. And she’s definitely got all the goods."[63] Serena was the defending champion in doubles with her sister Venus, winning the last two years. They lost in the quarterfinals to Elena Vesnina and Zvonareva, 6–3, 3–6, 4–6.
In Munich on July 7, Williams stepped on broken glass while in a restaurant.[65] She received 18 stitches, but the following day she lost an exhibition match to Kim Clijsters, 3–6, 2–6, in Brussels before a world-record crowd for a tennis match, 35,681 at the King Baudouin Stadium.[66] The cut foot turned out to be a serious injury, requiring surgery and preventing her from playing for the remainder of 2010. As a result, she lost the world no. 1 ranking to Dane Caroline Wozniacki on October 11, 2010[67] and ended the year ranked no. 4 in singles, despite having played only six tournaments, and no. 11 in doubles after four tournaments.
Because of her continuing rehabilitation for her foot injury, Serena withdrew from the 2011 Hopman Cup and the 2011 Australian Open.[68][69] On March 2, 2011, she confirmed that she had suffered a hematoma and a pulmonary embolism.[70][71][72] She made her first appearance on the WTA tour in almost a year at the 2011 AEGON International in Eastbourne,[73] winning her first match since Wimbledon, against Tsvetana Pironkova, but lost to top-seeded world no. 3 Vera Zvonareva in the second round, in a match that lasted over three hours.
Her next tournament was Wimbledon, where she was the defending champion. Despite being ranked no. 26, she was seeded seventh. In her first round match, she defeated French no. 2, Aravane Rezai. She then won her second round match against Simona Halep, and her third round against Maria Kirilenko. Her tournament ended when she lost to ninth seed, Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the round of 16.
Williams then played in Stanford as an unseeded player. She won her opening-round match against Anastasia Rodionova. In her second-round match, she took out Maria Kirilenko in three sets to set up a meeting with Wimbledon finalist Maria Sharapova. Serena won in straight sets. In the semifinals, Serena took on Wimbledon semifinalist, Sabine Lisicki and also defeated her in two sets. Serena won her first final of the season, against Marion Bartoli in two sets. Serena won her 38th career WTA singles title and her first title in 2011.
In her next tournament, Williams won the Rogers Cup, Serena started off strongly by beating Alona Bondarenko. In her second-round match, she beat Julia Goerges in straight sets, as well. After back-to-back three-setters against Jie Zheng and Lucie Safarova, the semifinals matched Serana against one of the most consistent players of the year, Viktoria Azarenka. Serena won, advancing to her second consecutive final. In the final, Serena defeated Samantha Stosur to win her second consecutive title and her 39th career title overall. At the Cincinnati Open, Serena defeated Lucie Hradecka, only to withdraw the next day, citing a right toe injury.
Next on her schedule was the US Open. She was seeded 28th and faced Bojana Jovanovski in the first round, winning the match easily. She next faced Michaëlla Krajicek, winning in two sets. In the third round she defeated Azarenka. She moved into the finals with two set wins over Ana Ivanovic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and world no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals. She lost the final, 2–6, 3–6, to Samantha Stosur, during a match which featured her verbally abusing the chair umpire.
The US Open final turned out to be Williams' last match in 2011, and she ended the year ranked world no. 12 with 2 titles and with a 22–3 record for the season. She only participated in six tournaments throughout the season.
Williams started the year by playing her debut at Brisbane International as her preparation for the Australian Open.[74] She defeated Chanelle Scheepers in the first round and Bojana Jovanovski in the second. However, during her match against Jovanovski, she injured her left ankle when serving for the match late in the second set. As a result, Williams was forced to withdraw from the tournament.[75] Next she participated at the Australian Open where she was seeded 12th. She defeated Tamira Paszek in the first round and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová in the second round.[76] She beat Hungarian Greta Arn in the third round.[77] Williams was knocked out of the Australian Open by Ekaterina Makarova 6–2, 6–3. Serena however, came back from her loss at the Australian Open, by cruising to a 5–7, 6–1, 6–1, victory over Anastasiya Yakimova, completing the U.S sweep over Belarus in the Fed Cup.
Williams returned to competition in Miami where she was seeded 10th. She avenged her US Open final loss to Samantha Stosur by beating her 7–5, 6–3 in the fourth round in a match where she fired 20 aces. Her quarterfinals berth brought her back to the top 10 of the world ranking. Her run, however, ended in the quarterfinals where Caroline Wozniacki defeated her 4–6, 4–6. A week later, she made her first final appearance of the season in Charleston where she defeated Sam Stosur convincingly 6–1, 6–1 in the semifinals. She went on to win her first title of the season, her 40th career title, after defeating Lucie Šafářová 6–0, 6–1 in the final. Her success at Family Circle Cup brought her ranking up to No. 9 in the world.
Williams started her European clay court season in Madrid as the ninth seed where she advanced to her second consecutive final following a third round victory against Caroline Wozniacki by 1–6, 6–3, 6–2 and world no. 2 , Maria Sharapova, in the quarterfinals by 6–1, 6–3. Her run to the final assured her ranking to increase to world no. 6 [78]. She eventually won her 41st title after defeating the world no.1, Victoria Azarenka, 6–1, 6–3, in the final. A week later, she participated in Rome as the ninth seed where she reached the semifinals. She withdrew before her semifinals match against Li Na citing a lower back injury. Her run, however, will bring her ranking to world no. 5.
On May 29th, 2012 lost in the first round of a major tournament for the first time in her career, falling to Virginie Razzano of France 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 Tuesday at the French Open. The fifth-seeded Williams was two points from victory nine times in the second set, including leading 5-1 in the tiebreaker. But Razzano won six straight points to force a third set, and then took control of the match.
Tournament | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | SR | W–L |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Open | 2R | 3R | 4R | QF | A | W | A | W | 3R | W | QF | W | W | A | 4R | 5 / 12 | 54–7 |
French Open | 4R | 3R | A | QF | W | SF | QF | A | A | QF | 3R | QF | QF | A | 1R | 1 / 11 | 39–10 |
Wimbledon | 3R | A | SF | QF | W | W | F | 3R | A | QF | F | W | W | 4R | 4 / 12 | 60–8 | |
US Open | 3R | W | QF | F | W | A | QF | 4R | 4R | QF | W | SF | A | F | 3 / 12 | 58–9 | |
Win–Loss | 8–4 | 11–2 | 12–3 | 18–4 | 21–0 | 19–1 | 14–3 | 12–2 | 5–2 | 19–3 | 19–3 | 23–2 | 18–1 | 9–2 | 3–2 | 13 / 47 | 211–34 |
Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponent | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | 1999 | US Open | Hard | Martina Hingis | 6–3, 7–6(7–4) |
Runner-up | 2001 | US Open | Hard | Venus Williams | 2–6, 4–6 |
Winner | 2002 | French Open | Clay | Venus Williams | 7–5, 6–3 |
Winner | 2002 | Wimbledon | Grass | Venus Williams | 7–6(7–4), 6–3 |
Winner | 2002 | US Open (2) | Hard | Venus Williams | 6–4, 6–3 |
Winner | 2003 | Australian Open | Hard | Venus Williams | 7–6(7–4), 3–6, 6–4 |
Winner | 2003 | Wimbledon (2) | Grass | Venus Williams | 4–6, 6–4, 6–2 |
Runner-up | 2004 | Wimbledon | Grass | Maria Sharapova | 1–6, 4–6 |
Winner | 2005 | Australian Open (2) | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 2–6, 6–3, 6–0 |
Winner | 2007 | Australian Open (3) | Hard | Maria Sharapova | 6–1, 6–2 |
Runner-up | 2008 | Wimbledon (2) | Grass | Venus Williams | 5–7, 4–6 |
Winner | 2008 | US Open (3) | Hard | Jelena Janković | 6–4, 7–5 |
Winner | 2009 | Australian Open (4) | Hard | Dinara Safina | 6–0, 6–3 |
Winner | 2009 | Wimbledon (3) | Grass | Venus Williams | 7–6(7–3), 6–2 |
Winner | 2010 | Australian Open (5) | Hard | Justine Henin | 6–4, 3–6, 6–2 |
Winner | 2010 | Wimbledon (4) | Grass | Vera Zvonareva | 6–3, 6–2 |
Runner-up | 2011 | US Open (2) | Hard | Samantha Stosur | 2–6, 3–6 |
Serena Williams has played her sister Venus 12 times in Grand Slam singles tournaments and 11 times in other tournaments (including 11 finals). Serena has a three match lead in the head-to-head series, 13–10. They are the only women during the open era to have played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals.
In her 2004 U.S. Open quarterfinal match against Jennifer Capriati, an overrule was made by chair umpire Mariana Alves in Capriati's favor, even though later video review showed this to be clearly in error. Williams attempted to argue the call, but was not successful. Capriati won the match, but tournament officials dismissed the umpire from the tournament. The controversy renewed calls for the adoption of technology like the MacCam and Hawk-Eye systems.[79]
In 2009, Williams again was involved in a controversial U.S. Open match, this time against Kim Clijsters in the semifinal round. The drama began at the end of the first set, when Williams slammed her racquet on the court in frustration over losing the set. She was given a warning, with a potential second violation carrying a one-point penalty. While trailing 4–6, 5–6, 15–30, Williams's second serve was called a foot fault, resulting in two match points for Clijsters. Williams gestured with her racquet to the lineswoman who had made the call and yelled at her, including profanities.[80] During the subsequent on-court conference between the head judge, the lineswoman, US Open officials, and Williams, a television microphone picked up Williams saying to the lineswoman, "I didn't say I would kill you. Are you serious?"[81] The incident resulted in Williams being penalized a point for unsportsmanlike conduct — necessitated by the earlier warning for racquet abuse — meaning Clijsters won the match 6–4, 7–5. The following day, Williams was issued the maximum permissible on-site fine of $10,000 (plus $500 for racquet abuse). After further investigation, the Grand Slam Committee in November 2009 fined her $175,000 in lieu of suspending her from the 2010 US Open or other Grand Slam events.[82] They also placed her on a two year probation, so if Williams commits another offense in the next two years at a Grand Slam tournament, she will be suspended from participating in the following US Open. If she commits no offenses in the next two years, her fine will be reduced to $82,500.[82] Williams initially refused to apologize for her outburst, both in her post-match press conference[83] and in an official statement released the following day.[56] She eventually apologized to the lineswoman in a statement two days following the incident.
In the final of the 2011 U.S. Open against Samantha Stosur, Williams again generated controversy. After shouting "Come on!" as the Australian attempted to return a forehand Williams believed to be a winner, chair umpire Eva Asderaki awarded the point to Stosur based on the USTA's deliberate hindrance rule, which states, "If a player commits any act which hinders his opponent in making a stroke, then, if this is deliberate, he shall lose the point or if involuntary, the point shall be replayed."[84] As the point was 30–40 on Williams's serve, the penalty gave the break of serve to Stosur. Williams became angry with the chair umpire and made several gestures and unflattering comments toward her during the next several changeovers, warning her, "Don't look at me," and telling her that if Asderaki ever saw Williams coming toward her, she should "look the other way". She told the umpire that she was "a loser", "a hater" and "unattractive, on the inside". Williams initially gained momentum in the set following the penalty, breaking back in the next game, but eventually flagged and lost the match, 6–2, 6–3. At the end of the match, she declined to offer the customary handshake to Asderaki. Williams mentioned the incident in her post-match speech as the tournament runner-up, claiming, "I hit a winner, but I guess it didn't count," but added, "It wouldn't have mattered in the end. Sam played really well."[85][86] A writer for ESPN suggested that Williams could avoid being found to have violated the terms of the "probation" on which she was placed following her 2009 outburst, as she did not appear to have used profanity in addressing Asderaki during the match.[87] In the end, Williams was fined $2,000 and was not barred from competing in the 2012 US Open because "...Williams's conduct, while verbally abusive, [did] not rise to the level of a major offence under the grand slam code of conduct."[88]
Williams was once known for her unusual and colorful outfits on court. In 2002, there was much talk when she wore a black lycra [[catsuit] at the US Open.[89] At the 2004 US Open, Williams wore denim skirts and knee-high boots—tournament officials, however, did not allow her to wear the boots during matches.[90] At Wimbledon in 2008, the white trench coat she wore during warm-up for her opening match was the subject of much discussion since it was worn despite the sunny weather.[91] Off-court, Williams has also presented new designs. In November 2004, at the London premiere of After the Sunset she wore a red gown that had a near-topless effect.[92]
Williams formerly had a special line with Puma[93] and currently has a line with Nike. The deal with Nike is worth US$40 million and was signed in April 2004.[94] Since 2004, she has also been running her own line of designer apparel called "Aneres"—her first name spelled backward. In 2009 she launched a signature collection of handbags and jewelry.[95] The collection, called Signature Statement, is sold mainly on the Home Shopping Network (HSN).
In early 2010, Williams became a certified nail technician in preparation for her upcoming nail collection with a company called HairTech.[96]
Williams has appeared on television and also provided voice work on animated shows: in a 2001 episode of The Simpsons Serena joined the animation along with sister Venus, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.[97] She has also provided guest voice work in a 2005 episode of Playhouse Disney's animated kids show Higglytown Heroes and a 2007 episode of the Nickelodeon cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender,[98] which she has described as her "favorite show".[99]
Williams has posed for the 2003 and 2004 editions of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.[100] In April 2005, MTV announced plans to broadcast a reality show around the lives of Serena and Venus, which was eventually aired on ABC Family. Williams has appeared twice on MTV's Punk'd and in 2007, appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race. In 2002, she played Miss Wiggins in the season 3 episode "Crouching Mother, Hidden Father" of My Wife and Kids;[101] she has also guest-starred during episodes of The Bernie Mac Show, ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.[102] In 2007 Williams appeared in the music video of "I Want You" by the American rapper Common, alongside performers Alicia Keys and Kanye West.[103]
In late 2009, Williams became the first active female professional athlete to appear in a feminine hygiene product advertising campaign. A series of online videos and print advertisements for Tampax Pearl tampons showed her hitting balls at Mother Nature, played by Catherine Lloyd Burns, to prevent Mother Nature giving her a red-wrapped gift, representing her menstrual period. In the online videos, the two have dueling press conferences over the "bad blood" between them. "A lot of celebrities are not open to working with our brand, and we're thrilled that Serena is", said a brand manager for Tampax at Procter & Gamble.[104]
In May 2012, a minute of a new hip-hop track by Serena Williams was leaked, along with reports the sports star was planning to release an album.[105]
In August 2009, Serena and Venus Williams became part-owners of the Miami Dolphins. The formal announcement was made during a press conference overlooking the practice field. The Williams are the first African-American females to obtain ownership in an NFL franchise. Other prominent owners include: Jimmy Buffett, Gloria and Emilio Estefan (the first Cuban-American owners), and Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez . Stephan Ross, the majority owner of the Dolphins, said "We are thrilled to have Venus and Serena join the Dolphins as limited partners. They are among the most admired athletes in the world and have become global ambassadors for the game of tennis. Their addition to our ownership group further reflects our commitment to connect with aggressively and embrace the great diversity that makes South Florida a multicultural gem."[106]
In 2008 Williams helped to fund the construction of the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni, Kenya.[107][108] She received a Celebrity Role Model Award from Avon Foundation in 2003 for work in breast cancer.[109] Williams has also been involved in a number of clinics at schools and community centers, particularly those which have programs focusing on at-risk youth.[1] She has also won the "Young Heroes Award" from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater L.A. and Inland (2003) and the "Family Circle and Prudential Financial Player Who Makes a Difference Award" (2004).[1] In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Williams, along with other ATP and WTA stars decided to forego their final day of preparation for the 2010 Australian Open to form a charity event in which all proceeds will go to the Haiti earthquake victims.[110]
Serena has published along with her sister Venus Williams and author Hilary Beard[111] a book titled Venus & Serena: Serving From The Hip: 10 Rules For Living, Loving and Winning by Boston: Houghton Mifflin in 2005.[111] [112][113][114][115] During the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Williams said that she is in the process of writing a TV show storyline, which will be converted into script form by her agency. She stated that the show will represent subject matter from a mix of popular American television shows such as Desperate Housewives,, and Family Guy.[116] Serena released her first solo published work, an autobiography entitled On the Line, following the 2009 US Open.
Williams has been the target of an alleged stalker, who was arrested at the gate to her Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., neighborhood on Monday, May 2, 2011. Police report that Patenema Ouedraogo, identified as an African who attended college in Texas, is barred from being near Serena by a preliminary injunction. Police say Ouedraogo was able to track Serena's whereabouts using the social networking site Twitter, and got her address from the letter her attorney sent telling him to stay away from her. Police say Ouedraogo once made it all the way to Serena's dressing room when she made an appearance on the Home Shopping Network at their studios in Tampa, Fla., on April 13, 2011.[117]
Tournament Name | Years | Record accomplished | Player tied |
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Hopman Cup | 2003–2008 | Two Hopman Cup Titles won | Dominik Hrbatý Tommy Robredo James Blake Arantxa Sánchez Vicario |
Australian Open | 2003–2010 | 5 singles titles during the open era | Stands alone[3] |
Australian Open | 2007 | Unseeded winner of singles title | Chris O'Neil (1978) |
1999 French Open – 2010 French Open | 1999–2010 | Highest streak of consecutive initial Grand Slam finals won (doubles) (12) | Venus Williams |
Grand Slam tournaments | 2002 | Won two Grand Slam singles tournaments in the same calendar year in straight sets | Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova Steffi Graf Martina Hingis Justine Henin |
Grand Slam tournaments | 2000–present | Won 4 Grand Slam singles tournaments in straight sets | Evonne Goolagong |
Sony Ericsson Open (Key Biscayne) | 2002–2008 | 5 singles titles overall | Steffi Graf |
2009 WTA Tour | 2009 | Highest single year earnings at $6,545,586 (2009) | Stands alone |
1995–present | Highest prize money career earnings by a female athlete at $34,962,357 | Stands alone | |
2010 Wimbledon | 2010 | Most aces served by a female at a Grand Slam (89) | Stands alone |
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012) |
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In 2005, Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 17th-best player in 40 years.[120]
In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time.[121]
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Serena Williams |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Serena Williams |
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Persondata | |
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Name | Williams, Serena Jameka Ross Evelyn |
Alternative names | |
Short description | American tennis player |
Date of birth | September 26, 1981 |
Place of birth | Saginaw, Michigan, United States |
Date of death | |
Place of death |
Country | South Africa |
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Born | (1971-10-22) 22 October 1971 (age 40) Hoopstad, South Africa |
Height | 158 cm (5 ft 2½ in) |
Weight | 54 kg (119 lb) |
Turned pro | 1988 |
Retired | 2004 |
Plays | Right-handed (two-handed backhand) |
Career prize money | $5,594,821 |
Singles | |
Career record | 568–337 |
Career titles | 9 |
Highest ranking | No. 3 (3 November 1997) |
Grand Slam Singles results | |
Australian Open | SF (1996, 1997) |
French Open | SF (1997) |
Wimbledon | 4R (1994) |
US Open | QF (1994, 1996, 1998) |
Doubles | |
Career record | 269–219 |
Career titles | 9 |
Highest ranking | No. 15 (27 September 1993) |
Last updated on: 15 September 2006. |
Amanda Coetzer (born 22 October 1971 in Hoopstad, South Africa) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa.
Coetzer turned professional in 1988 and retired in 2004. She won her first top-level singles title in 1993 in Melbourne, and her second later that year in Tokyo.
Coetzer entered the top-20 on the women's world rankings in 1992 and remained there for most of the next 10 years. She developed a reputation for regularly beating players who were higher ranked than her as she climbed to her career high ranking of World No. 3 in 1997. As a result of her many upset wins and her small size, she earned the nickname "The Little Assassin."
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At the Canadian Open in 1995, Coetzer defeated three players ranked in the world's top-5 – Steffi Graf (No. 1), Jana Novotná (No. 4) and Mary Pierce (No. 5) – before finally losing to Monica Seles in the final. The defeat of Graf ended a 32-match winning-streak for the German.
At the Australian Open in 1996, Coetzer became the first South African woman in the Open era to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, where she lost in three sets to Anke Huber.
1997 was the best season of Coetzer's career. In reaching the Australian Open semi-finals for the second consecutive year, she defeated World No. 1 Graf in the fourth round. She then beat Graf for a second time in the quarter-finals at Berlin, handing her worst-ever loss by defeating her 6–0, 6–1 in just 56 minutes. And then in the quarter-finals of the French Open she defeated Graf yet again to become one of just six players to beat Graf three times in one year, and one of only four to defeat her more than once in Grand Slam play. Coetzer lost in the French Open semi-finals to eventual-champion Iva Majoli. Later in the year in Leipzig, Coetzer beat Martina Hingis who by then had taken over the World No. 1 ranking. Coetzer won two singles titles that year in Budapest and Luxembourg.
Coetzer won the biggest title of her career in 1998 at Hilton Head (Tier 1 event).
In 1999 Coetzer became the only player ever to defeat Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport while they were ranked No. 1.
In 2000, Coetzer teamed-up with Wayne Ferreira to win the Hopman Cup for South Africa. She also played of South Africa's Fed Cup team for six years and represented South Africa in the Olympic Games three times.
In 2001, she qualified for her ninth consecutive year-end championship.
In 2002, she obtained an invite from the Hong Kong Tennis Patrons' Association to play The Hong Kong Ladies Challenge 2002.
During her career, Coetzer won nine top-level singles titles and nine doubles titles. Her final singles title was won in Acapulco in 2003. Her career prize-money earnings totalled US$5,594,821.
Coetzer is the daughter of Nico and Suska Coetzer. She started playing tennis at the age of 6. During her playing career she resided primarily in Hilton Head, South Carolina and was coached by Gavin Hopper. She is married to the Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan.[1]
Year | Championship | Partner | Opponents in Final | Score in Final |
1993 | US Open | Inés Gorrochategui | Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Helena Suková |
6–4, 6–2 |
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No. | Date | Tournament Name | Location | Surface | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
1. | 17 January 1993 | Sunsmart Victorian Open | Melbourne, Australia | Hard | Naoko Sawamatsu | 6–2, 6–3 |
2. | 26 September 1993 | Nichirei International Championships | Tokyo, Japan | Hard | Kimiko Date | 6-3, 6–2 |
3. | 15 May 1994 | BVV Prague Open | Prague, Czech Republic | Clay | Åsa Svensson | 6–1, 7–6(14) |
4. | 27 April 1997 | Budapest Lotto Open | Budapest, Hungary | Clay | Sabine Appelmans | 6–1, 6–3 |
5. | 26 October 1997 | SEAT Open | Luxembourg City, Luxembourg | Carpet (I) | Barbara Paulus | 6–4, 3–6, 7–5 |
6. | 5 April 1998 | Family Circle Magazine Cup | Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, US | Clay | Irina Spîrlea | 6–3, 6–4 |
7. | 21 May 2000 | Mexx Benelux Open | Antwerp, Belgium | Clay | Cristina Torrens Valero | 4–6, 6–2, 6–3 |
8. | 4 March 2001 | Abierto Mexicano Pegaso (1) | Acapulco, Mexico | Clay | Elena Dementieva | 2–6, 6–1, 6–2 |
9. | 2 March 2003 | Abierto Mexicano Pegaso (2) | Acapulco, Mexico | Clay | Mariana Díaz-Oliva | 7–5, 6–3 |
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Grand slam events in boldface.
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Tournament | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | Career SR |
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Australian Open | A | A | A | A | 1R | 2R | 3R | SF | SF | 4R | 4R | 2R | QF | 4R | 4R | 2R | 0 / 12 |
French Open | 4R | 1R | 2R | 3R | 2R | 4R | 2R | 4R | SF | 1R | 1R | 3R | 3R | 1R | 1R | A | 0 / 15 |
Wimbledon | 1R | 2R | 2R | A | 2R | 4R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 3R | 2R | 3R | 2R | 2R | A | 0 / 14 |
US Open | 1R | 1R | 1R | 3R | 3R | QF | 1R | QF | 4R | QF | 1R | 3R | 1R | 3R | 3R | A | 0 / 15 |
SR | 0 / 3 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 2 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 1 | 0 / 56 |
A = did not participate in the tournament.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played.
As of 1 November 2010 Coetzer's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:[2] Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amanda Coetzer |
Persondata | |
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Name | Coetzer, Amanda |
Alternative names | |
Short description | Tennis player |
Date of birth | 22 October 1971 |
Place of birth | Hoopstad, South Africa |
Date of death | |
Place of death |