A look back at Serena Williams’ biggest achievements following her retirement

Whenever someone mentions tennis, it is likely that your mind is drawn to the name Serena Williams – whether you are a big fan of the sport or not. And why not? Serena Williams has been one of the most successful players in the sport since she first took the professional court in 1995. The fearsome player has racked up countless accolades throughout her career, but now Williams has apparently decided to hang up her racket for good.

Now that Serena Williams has announced her retirement, it would be a great time to look back at some of her finest moments. We can’t discuss all of her achievements, of course; there are just too many. However, let’s look at some of Williams’ biggest achievements so you can understand just how much the sport is going to change without her presence.

Grand Slam wins

Winning a Grand Slam title is every tennis player’s goal, and it is often the dream to win at least one such trophy during his or her time in the sport. Williams gets to retire comfortably knowing that she has won 23, starting with a slam early on in her career at the 1999 U.S. Open. She is currently second on the list of Grand Slam singles titles, men or women, behind only Margaret Court (24) and ahead of Rafael Nadal (22), Novak Djokovic (21), and Roger Federer (20).

Doubles Grand Slams

Serena Williams may be one of the biggest names in tennis, but her sister Venus is similarly renowned. That is partly because the two have had a huge impact on the double tennis scene over the last 20 years. While the pair’s doubles career has certainly been filled with trophies, they aren’t quite the record holders when it comes to the number of doubles Grand Slam wins.

Both Serena and Venus have racked up 14 Grand Slam wins in their time, which places them tied for third overall as a team. The current team leaders on that table are Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan with 16 (Mike has 18 individually). As you can see, there isn’t much between first and third place, and coming this close as a double act is just another reason why Williams is such an all-time great.

Olympic medals

While Williams was certainly a force to be reckoned with on a Grand Slam court, there are other areas in which she is extremely accomplished. In fact, she found success on the biggest sports stage in the world.

Shortly after her first Grand Slam win, Serena attended the 2000 Sydney Olympics—where she won the gold medal in women’s doubles alongside her sister. Many Olympic champions would be satisfied with the top prize in their sport, but Williams would go on to win three more gold medals in her career. One was awarded for winning the singles tournament the same year and the other two were again doubles medals in 2008 and 2012. Her first two medals were a record at the time, as no other tennis player had won gold in both the singles and doubles events. That record would eventually be matched by Venus in 2012.

Serena Slam

You could look at all of Williams’ achievements listed so far and call it a wildly successful career. There are very few sports personalities with enough power to command that a new term be created to describe one of her biggest achievements.

Back in 2003, she made history by winning the Australian Open. While that may not seem like a big deal, her victory Down Under made Williams the holder of all four major singles titles. She had previously won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open to earn what the press called the “Serena Slam.” That may seem like a lot for one player to achieve, and no one would have guessed that this would happen when betting at www.onlinecasinos.co.uk, but there’s more. Williams was able to replicate this success again in 2014 and 2015, making her the only player other than Graf to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time twice.

No. 1 player

All of these achievements do not come with at least some recognition from the major sporting bodies. That is why Serena Williams was ranked as the No. 1 female tennis player in the world at the end of 2002, 2009, 2013, 2014, and 2015. She is third on the all-time WTA list with a total of 319 weeks in the top spot, trailing only Steffi Graf (377) and Martina Navratilova (332).

Williams and Graf are tied for the most consecutive weeks as the No. 1-ranked female player (186). After Graf’s run came from 1987 to 1991, Williams was on top from 2013 to 2016.

Off the court

While Williams has certainly made her mark on tennis during her time, some of her biggest achievements can be found off the court. As a young woman, Williams grew up in a poor community where diverse residents struggled to move on to achieve any kind of success. She attributed this lack of success to the fact that there were no black role models out there to inspire young African American kids. As you can imagine, both Williams sisters sought to change that fact the second they started making a name for themselves.

Williams has spent a lot of her time off the court speaking with underprivileged families in the black community and has donated millions of dollars toward sports facilities in deprived areas.

Her attitude toward the less fortunate in society has provided everyone with something to aspire to and is just as important as her achievements on the tennis court. That is why she will always be remembered as one of the greats even though her tennis career has ended.