Serena Williams' incredible longevity stats

Like Roger Federer, also Serena Williams never ceases to amaze us. Like the Swiss Maestro, also the American player was born in 1981, but at the end of September. Winner of 23 Grand Slam titles today, Serena's first success on the WTA Tour came back in February 1999 in Paris, when she defeated Amélie Mauresmo in the third set tiebreaker in the final.

A few months later here, the first Major seal came for the American player at the US Open, where she defeated Martina Hingis in the final act. In 2002, she reached the top of the WTA rankings for the first time, a position she held for a total of 319 weeks (she is currently ranked third in this special ranking, behind just Steffi Graff with 377 and Martina Navratilova with 331).

Very strong player also in the women's doubles, where Serena won 14 Grand Slam trophies together with her sister Venus. On top of that, the American player claimed also two titles won in mixed doubles together with Belarusian player Max Mirnyi. She also boasts four gold medals at the Olympic Games, as well as five wins at the WTA Finals.

Twenty-five years after her professional debut, Serena Williams is currently ranked on the 11th position in the women's world rankings and last September she reached the Flushing Meadows semifinal once again, where she lost in three sets to Viktoria Azarenka. In spite of all these years on the WTA tour, Serena remains one of the strongest player still active and aims to keep succeeding also in 2021.

The incredible career of Serena Williams

The journalist Enrico Maria Riva, to underline once again the extraordinary longevity of the former world number one, made an interesting research: in September 1995, the date of entry of Williams into the professional Tour, 37 of the current top 100 in the standings were not still born.

Furthermore, only one other player had already played her first match of her career: it was obviously her sister Venus, who is one year older than her. The first game ever played by Serena took place in the first round of qualifying in Quebec City 1995, clearly lost by a score of 6-1 6-1 by countrywoman Annie Miller.

Miller, born in 1977, was no more than 40 WTA two years later. Serena closed the 2020 season with the retirement from the second round of Roland Garros, where she would have to face the Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova.

When Serena Williams became Pro (September 1995) 37 current Top 100 weren’t born 98 current Top 100 hadn’t played their 1st match ever Micheal Jackson led the charts with “You are not alone” PlayStation was released by Sony

— enrico maria riva (@enricomariariva) November 30, 2020

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3okzSzv