Serena Williams Biography

Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on the 26th September, 1981. She is the youngest of five sisters, Lyndrea, Isha, Yetunde and Venus. She began playing tennis at age 5 at neighborhood courts in Compton, California, USA.

Serena was coached by father, Richard Williams, and mother, Oracene Price who was coach / advisor. Also she was trained by Kerrie Brooks; previously coached by Rick Macci for 1 and half years.

Serena turned professional at the age of 14, even though the WTA did not recognise entrants that young. She made her professional debut in 1995 at a non-WTA tournament, the Bell Challenge in Quebec. She played sporadically and did not meet with much individual success until 1997.

Although she lost emphatically, her father offered continual encouragement and in 1997 she was ranked 304th in the world and rising, after beating Monica Seles. In July 1998, she won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon with Max Mirnyi, and by August she had improved to No. 21.

Serena won her first WTA tour singles victory in early 1999, at the Open Gaz de France in Paris. That win began an incredible season for Serena, in which she won five singles titles in 48 matches. On September 11th, 1999, Serena won the U.S. Open after dominating the tournament, and the very next day she won the Ladies' Doubles with Venus.

In the fall of 2000, both Venus and Serena Williams represented the United States at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, alongside Davenport and Monica Seles. she and Serena won their 22nd straight doubles match in the finals in the same Olympiad.

Serena had an up-and-down season in 2001, but reached a high point at the U.S. Open in September, where she had commanding victories over Davenport and Hingis in the quarter- and semifinals, respectively

In 2002, Serena defeated Venus in the finals of the French Open, Wimbeldon, and the US Open. The string of victories catapulted the younger sibling to the top of WTA tour rankings, with Venus dropping to second place.

Despite the inevitable rivalry, the Williams sisters remain close friends. Raised as devout Jehovah's Witnesses, both were home-schooled by their mother, and have received their high school diplomas. In 1999, Serena joined her sister at the Art Institute of Florida, where they studied fashion design.

As interested in fashion and acting she was a guest voice on a Feb. 11, 2001, episode of The Simpsons animated television show with her sister Venus. After that she appeared in rapper Memphis Bleek's Do My video featuring Jay-Z and made a cameo appearance in Martin Lawrence's movie Black Knight in the fall of 2001. she also appeared as a school teacher in My Wife and Kids starring Damon Wayans on ABC in October 2002.