After working so hard at the highest level of the game of tennis, Serena Williams is just one title short of the record 24th Grand Slam title held by Margaret Smith Court who retired in 1977. She just suffered an injury which ruled her out of the Cincinnati Masters that is after failing to complete her match in the final of the Rogers Cup a few days back. The injuries continue to dent her chance of getting one extra title to match the greatest ever.
Serena's rise to great heights is one that would inspire anyone from any generation. She started playing tennis at the age of 3 to 4 being coached by her dad regularly. Her dad did home schooling for her and her sister Venus to give them more time to play the game. Hmmm... something for many parents to learn from.
At the age of 14, Serena became a professional tennis player winning her first Grand Slam title 3 years later, at 17. She won the Australian Open after beating Irina Spirlea from Romania in the final. A year later, she won the US Open. 2 major titles for a teenager is a dream many young tennis athletes wouldn't dare to imagine. And yet this just kick started Serena's rise to glory.
In 2003, Serena won the Australian Open completing the set of all Grand Slam titles in a row. She won the Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and the French Open without anyone stopping her.. TOTAL DOMINANCE. For those that are fans of European football, think of your teams winning all the domestic titles and then the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup.. Exceptional. A handful of teams have reached that dominance.
Serena repeated this dominance recently in 2015. Indeed every Tennis fan here considered her a GOAT(Greatest of All Time) in Tennis. Her last Grand Slam title came in 2017 to make the overall Grand Slam titles she holds to 23.
It has been hard to gain back her form which everyone had gotten used to but she has reached close and we might take another generation to witness such dominance again.