Serena Williams
Serena Williams is the most decorated tennis player of her generation, 23 Grand Slam singles titles, a billion-dollar business brain, and a cultural force who refuses to be defined by a single lane.
Serena Williams: The GOAT Who Outgrew the Court
Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan) turned professional in 1995 and proceeded to rewrite every record in women’s tennis. Her 23 Grand Slam singles titles are the most by any player in the Open Era, and her dominance spanned three full decades, a feat of athleticism and mental fortitude that no one else has come close to matching.
Off the court, Serena built a second empire. She launched her own fashion line, Serena Williams Collection, and became a serious venture capital player through Serena Ventures, backing dozens of startups, many led by women and people of color. She is as comfortable in a boardroom or on a fashion runway as she ever was on Centre Court.
Her personal life has been equally high-profile. Her 2017 marriage to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and the near-fatal childbirth complications she openly described shifted public conversation around Black maternal health in America. She has two daughters with Ohanian: Alexis Olympia (born 2017) and Adira River (born 2023).
In August 2022, Serena announced she was “evolving away from tennis,” and she played her final professional match at the 2022 US Open. Rather than call it a retirement, she framed it as the beginning of a new chapter, a chapter that, knowing Serena, will almost certainly be just as loud as the last one.