See how Serena Williams became one of the all-time greats, and how she defeated the top contenders on the women’s tour in a way that only she could.
Serena Williams became the first player in history to clinch a career Grand Slam by besting her fellow finalists at Wimbledon and losing only once on grass. It was a rare case where the best player on the planet and a very good player competed for the same number of points.
Serena Williams came into the 2010 season with a major win over Maria Sharapova and a top-four match record, and had a chance to become the first player since Billie Jean King to win a Slam since Steffi Graf and Steffi Graf. But she never even came close to getting there.
Instead, she won back-to-back Wimbledon Championships, and then defeated another top-four player, Serena Richards, on grass to win the third title of the season, only to lose to the top-ranked player in the world on that surface.
At the time, it seemed as if there was no place for Serena Williams on the women’s tour. But after losing in the second round twice in the final round at majors, she managed to win her third career Grand Slam — and the most important one of her career — by beating a player she was clearly the best player to ever play the game.
When Serena returned to her old stomping grounds for her hometown tournament in Miami, she defeated the top-ranked player in the world, Victoria Azarenka, before losing to Venus Williams in the final. In other words, the best player on the planet didn’t even bother to come close to earning a win at her home tournament.
Wimbledon is arguably the most important tennis tournament of the year. It’s one of the four majors, with the other three being the U.S. Open in Washington, a Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and an Olympic gold medal at the Olympics. But in the first four years of the new five