Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American professional tennis player and the current World Number 1 ranked female player. She has been ranked World Number 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on five separate occasions. She regained this ranking for the fifth time in her career on the 2 November 2009. She is the reigning champion in both singles and women's doubles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and in doubles at the US Open. In total, she has won 25 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, eleven in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. In addition, she has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles. She also has won more Grand Slam titles than any other active female player and has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history.
Williams reached the top ten on the WTA world rankings for the first time in 1999 when she won several tournaments, including her first Grand Slam victory at the US Open at the age of 17. Between 2002 and 2003, Williams won five of the six Grand Slam events she entered, becoming the fifth woman in history to hold all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously. She became the World Number 1 for the first time in July 2002.
Williams' domination of the sport came to an abrupt end in mid-2003 when she had surgery to repair a partial tear in a knee tendon. Upon her return to the sport in 2004, her results were noticeably less consistent than previously. In early 2005, she won her first Grand Slam title in 18 months at the Australian Open, but a string of injuries then limited her to competing in just 13 events in the two years that followed, winning none of them. Her standing in the world rankings suffered as a result, the nadir being World Number 140 in July 2006, leading to widespread speculation that she had passed her peak. Williams, however, eventually won another Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in 2007, despite being ranked World Number 81 at the time. Williams returned to the top ten later that year and has since competed in every Grand Slam event. She became the World Number 1 for the first time in five years in September 2008. She was named female athlete of 2009 by the Associated Press.
Williams is the younger sister of fellow former World Number 1 professional female tennis player Venus Williams. They have played each other in 23 professional matches dating back to 1998, with Serena winning 13 matches of these matches as of October 2009. Their meeting in the final of the 2001 US Open was the first Grand Slam final contested by two sisters in the open era. As of July 2009, they have met in eight Grand Slam finals, with Serena winning six of those. Between the 2002 French Open and the 2003 Australian Open, they met in all four Grand Slam finals, the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam finals. The pair regularly team to play doubles, proving highly successful, having won 11 Grand Slam titles together.
Australian Open 2010
Williams' first scheduled tournament of 2010 was the Medibank International in Sydney, a warm up for the Australian Open. She received a bye into the second round, when she defeated the top Spanish player, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, 6–1, 6–2. In the quarterfinal she defeated Russian Vera Dushevina 6–2, 6–2 then in the semifinal defeated Frenchwoman Aravane Rezaï 3–6, 7–5, 6–4 after trailing 6–3, 5–2 and two points from defeat. She lost to World No. 5 and defending champion Elena Dementieva, the same player she lost to in the semifinal the year before, 6–3, 6–2 in the final.
At the Australian Open, she competed in singles as well as doubles (with sister Venus) as the defending champion. In the first round she defeated Poland's Urszula Radwańska 6–2, 6–1. In the second round she defeated Czech player Petra Kvitova 6–2, 6–1. In the third round she defeated World No. 33 Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain 6–0, 6–3. She quickly defeated Australian Samantha Stosur, 6–4, 6–2 in a 65-minute match in the fourth round. She eliminated Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinal, beating the Belarusian for the third Australian Open in a row, 4–6, 7–6(4), 6–2, after being a set and 0–4 down in the second. Up until the quarterfinals, Williams was the only player in either the men's or women's draw to have not had a service break; Azarenka broke Williams' serve five times in their quarterfinal match, including the opening game of the first set. In the semi-final Williams defeated sixteenth seeded Li Na 7–6(4) 7–6(1) on her fifth match point to reach her fifth final in Melbourne and her fifteenth Grand Slam singles final. She beat 2004 Champion Justine Henin in the final 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
In doubles, she teamed up with her sister Venus. They easily dominated Sophie Ferguson and Jessica Moore, winning 6–1, 6–1 in the first round. In the second round, they cruised past Loana Raluca Olaru and Olga Savchuk 6–1, 6–2. In the third round, they beat Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 6–3, 6–2. In the quarterfinal, they won a tight three-setter against American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and China's Zi Yan 6–4, 4–6, 6–4. In the doubles semi-final the sisters defeated Lisa Raymond and Australian Rennae Stubbs in straight sets 6–3, 7–6 to advance to the Australian Open doubles final for the second consecutive year and the fourth of their careers. They defended their title, defeating world Number 1 in doubles Cara Black and Liezel Huber in a straight sets victory, 6-4, 6-3. The Williams sisters are undefeated in grand slam doubles finals and have won four Australian Open doubles titles.
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