Serena Williams may no longer be playing tennis, but the world is still spinning, and she recently turned 42 despite only recently competing on the WTA Tour.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion appeared on this planet 42 years ago, and over the years she has given a lot to tennis fans around the world.
Widely described as the greatest female tennis player of all time and one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Williams has a long list of accomplishments, too long in fact. However, we’re going to take a look at a few of them in honor of the legendary player who bid farewell to the sport a year ago in New York.
First of all, she has 23 Grand Slam trophies. It’s not the most in tennis history, nor the most by a woman, but her 23 is, according to some, more impressive than Margaret Court’s 24. This is the greatest achievement in the history of women’s tennis.
She won six of those matches without dropping a set, something only Martina Navratilova could do. She played in 33 Grand Slam finals, which is amazing. It’s rare to win an Olympic medal, let alone her four.
She holds the record for most hard court titles at age 47, just one of many records she holds. She has been ranked No. 1 for 186 consecutive weeks and a total of 319 weeks, behind only Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graff. These are some of the things she has done but not all, if we were to list everything she has achieved we would be here for days.
It was an incredible career and an incredible individual who continues to inspire players even after retirement. She’s arguably the greatest tennis star women’s tennis has ever seen, and that means a lot. Happy birthday, Serena, the GOAT of women’s tennis.