Serena Williams

Revise: Serena Williams wins 2012 U.S. Open championship.  

Serena Williams is a professional tennis player and a former World No.1. She has held the top position in the ranking charts on five different occasions. Many consider her to be the greatest female tennis player in the modern era. She is ninth on the all-time list of Grand Slam titles with 27 wins. She is also only the fifth woman in history to hold all four Grand Slams titles simultaneously. The Swiss prodigy Martina Hingis was the last player to do so. Serena has also won 2 Olympic Gold medals in women's doubles. She plays her doubles matches with sister Venus and the pair has won a dozen Grand Slams together. She holds many records as a tennis player and you will be surprised to know that Serena is the first player to win 5 Australian Open singles titles! That takes some doing, really.

Serena Williams is the only female tennis player to have amassed more than $35m in prize money. But it is not prize money only that helps to pump up her bank balance. She has an endorsement deal with Nike that is worth close to $40m. She has also launched her own line of designer apparel and a signature collection of handbags and jewelry. The collection is sold mainly on HSN. Williams has also appeared on TV and given her voice on many animated shows. In 2009 Serena Williams became the first female professional athlete to appear for a feminine hygiene product. She is also a stake holder in NFL's Miami Dolphins.Serena Williams loves remodeling her house which she shares sister, Venus Williams. When she renovated the bathroom, it alone cost her $180,000. It features white marble, fixtures made of gold and a tub that can easily accommodate four persons. It must be noted here that this house was actually bought by the two sisters in 1998 for a sum of $525,000. The palatial home is said to have 30-feet ceilings. Serena is also involved in a lot of charities. The 30-year old tennis player funded the construction of Serena Williams Secondary School in Kenya in 2008. She was also involved in forming a charity event just after the Haiti earthquake in a bid to raise funds for the unfortunate victims. It is unfortunate that this talented tennis player 'lost' quite a bit of money through fines for her on-court behavior. In 2009 US Open she was involved in a needless controversy in her semi-final match against Kim Clijsters. She shouted profanities at a lineswoman along with finger-pointing and even made life-threatening comments. She was fined $10,000 on the spot and order to pay $82,500 later on. This was the largest ever punishment against a tennis player.Serena Williams was the youngest of the five daughters of Richard and Oracene Williams. Her father was instrumental in introducing her to the game of tennis and was even her coach in the initial stages. She showed her talent and class from early on and at one point of time she was the #1 ranked player in the U-10 division in USTA. In 1995 she turned pro and within a couple of years she broke into the top-100 bracket. By 2006 Serena seemed burnt out and was dealing with multiple injuries and niggles. She moved down in the rankings too. Though she has again started playing but the tennis viewing public reckons that the same power and enthusiasm is totally missing. On the personal front, Serena does not have anything called love life. In fact, she has admitted that it is difficult for her to get dates as she is very picky about boyfriends. She lives in Florida with her sister and their two dogs.