Serena Williams Net Worth and Biography

Serena Williams is no new name in the world of sports. The professional tennis player is a multiple American Grand Slam title winner and a force in the field of tennis.

Willims was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for 319 weeks, finishing as the year-end No. 1 five times. Together with her sister, Venus, Serena has made a name for herself in the world of tennis, both in the women’s and overall categories. Although the “Tennis Queen” has announced that she is “evolving away” from sports to focus on other important things, Williams’s professional career is one to be envied by many.

In this article, RNN will highlight the net worth and biography of a game-changer in the world of female Tennis- Serena Williams.

Serena Williams Net Worth and Biography

Biodata

Early Life

Born on September 26, 1981, Serena Williams was born to Oracene Price and Richard Williams in the city of Saginaw, Michigan. The interesting thing about Williams’s parents is that they were both Tennis coaches and her mother served as a coach to Williams and her sister, giving her the necessary foundation needed for what she has become today.

Serena has a very large family that includes both paternal and maternal half-siblings. Venus Williams is the popular sister of Serena. The duo has competed against each other in several games including the Grand Slam Tournament finals, although Serena has won the most.

Williams started playing tennis at the age of four, about the same age she started training her own daughter, Olympia who is now 5 years old.

Serena attended the tennis academy of Rick Macci until her father pulled her out and took over coaching from home. The 40-year-old “legend” is said to have suffered racism during national junior tennis tournaments.

Professional Career

In 1995, Williams set out to make her professional debut as a wild-card entry in the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California. She was however denied by the Women Tennis Association as a result of the age-eligibility restrictions in place. 14-year-old Serena (at the time) filed an antitrust lawsuit against them but eventually withdrew it based on a request by her parents who initially wanted her to wait till she was 16 to start playing professionally.

In October of the same year, she partook in her first professional event at the Bell Challenge in Quebec, using a wild-card entry to bypass the age-eligibility rules in place. She however lost in the first qualifying round to Annie Miller. Williams won her first professional title with her sister in 1998 at the U.S. National Indoor Championships in Oklahoma City. Together, they became the third pair of sisters to win a WTA title.

Williams began the 1999 Australian Open on a note of loss. She lost to Sandrine Testud but later defeated Amélie Mauresmo in the final of the Open Gaz de France in Paris. The same week, her sister Venus also won the IGA Superthrift Classic in Memphis, Tennessee. This feat gave the duo the title of the first sisters to win professional tournaments the same week.

Before she became someone to be referred to as the Greatest of all Time (G.O.A.T), Williams featured in several games year-in-year-out and kept finishing all the years on a notable ranking. There were down times for the Tennis woman though. 2008 to 2010 would always be remembered as the years when Serena’s career suffered as a result of several injuries. From an urgent dental surgery to a back injury to a knee injury and even a stomach muscle injury, Serena put her career on hold within these years to treat herself.

From 2011 to 2017 though, Williams won several titles before taking a maternal leave, only to make a comeback in 2018 when she suffered many losses before eventually rising to her feet again.

Serena Williams has partaken in the following tournaments with win percentages as stated:

• Australian Open- 88% win
• French Open- 83% win
• Wimbledon- 88% win
• US Open- 88% win

The athlete has 13 Grand Slam singles titles and 14 doubles, all of which she won with her sister. She also holds the following titles:

1. Open Era record for most women’s singles titles at the Australian Open.
2. The Open Era record for most titles won at the US Open (Shared record with Chris Evert).
3. Most women’s singles match won in majors
4. She has the most singles majors won since turning 30 years old.
5. The only tennis player, male or female, to win three of the four Grand Slams at least 6 times.
6. Five-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships in the singles division.

Serena also holds several doubles titles with her sister, Venus.

Personal Life

Serena Williams is married to the co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian. The duo got married on November 16, 2017, barely a year after their engagement. Some celebrity guests at their wedding were Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Kelly Rowland, and Anna Wintour.

Williams and Ohanian have a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr, who they welcomed in September 2017. The athlete disclosed that her daughter would also join the tennis family as she has started lessons from an external coach.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr. (@olympiaohanian)

Serena is also keen on her Faith life. She disclosed that she was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness but has never really practiced it. The athlete however says she observes some traditions like refusing to celebrate birthdays. She explained this by saying “Olympia doesn’t celebrate birthdays”.

Serena Williams Net Worth

Serena Williams has an estimated net worth of $260 million, according to a recent update from Forbes.

In 2016, she was the world’s highest-paid female athlete, earning about $29 million. As of 2017 also, she was the only woman on Forbes’ list of the 100 highest-paid athletes, with $27 million in prize money and endorsements. In 2021, she was ranked 28th on Forbes’ World’s Highest-Paid Athletes list.

The professional athlete makes her fortune majorly from sports.