Wonder Woman of the Week: Serena Williams

This blogger is no stranger to tennis. Besides my own upbringing by a high school tennis player, there have been two previous Wonder Women of the Week who were accomplished athletes on the court. This week’s Wonder Woman is none other than current number one ranked tennis player in the world, Serena Williams. Williams is the youngest of five children- including fellow tennis athlete Venus Williams. She started playing at five years old in Compton when most kids were learning about basketball and baseball.

Williams made her professional debut in Quebec City in 1995, losing in the first round, but that didn’t stop her. In 1997, she was ranked 99 in the world, and just pushed her way up ever since. In 1998, she was ranked in the top 20 female tennis players in the world, in 1999 was ranked in the top five and in 2002 was ranked number one. Over the next couple of years, Serena seemed to have reached her peak falling all the way back down to 95th in the world in 2006, but still she didn’t give up. She pushed hard and trained harder to become 7th in 2007 and 2nd in 2008. Over the next few years, Serena remained in the top ten until 2014 when she once again came out on top.

In 2014, Serena won first place at the US Open and became one of only three women to win 18 Grand Slam Titles in tennis. Only three women in the history of tennis have more than 18 Grand Slam Titles, making Serena Williams tied for fourth greatest female tennis player in the history of professional tennis.

Like all athletes, Williams is a champion on and off the court. She has opened two public schools in Kenya, toured Nigeria with her sister as UNICEF goodwill ambassadors, and frequently visits at-risk youths. Needless to say, we can all expect to see more wonderful news from Serena Williams, Wonder Woman of the Week.