There is tension in the arena as sweat drips down Serena Williams’ face, and the tennis ball flies back and forth across the court. She plays against her sister Venus Williams, and the score is 16-11; this is not the first time they verse each other in the Grand Slam finals, nor is this the first time Serena defeats her.

American tennis player Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Mochica. She is the youngest amongst her siblings, and little did she know that she would become one the greatest tennis players in history.

Freshman Sreeja Mamillapalli says, “Tennis is my passion, and Serena Williams is a huge inspiration to me. She reminds me that anything is possible, and that girls can do anything, including winning an Olympic gold medal. She overall motivates me to keep practicing in tennis and to not give up.”

Williams always had a love for tennis from a very young age, as she started training at the age of three. Her father saw the joy that tennis brought to his daughter, so he taught himself the proper rules and techniques of playing tennis through different books and videos, and then trained Williams to become successful in the sport.

Williams practiced two hours every day from age six to 14. By the time she was 10 years old, she was winning 46-3 on the junior United States Tennis Association tour, and she ranked first in the 10-and-under division.

She then began to invest even more time in practicing tennis by joining her high school tennis team. She made her reputation of being undefeated at a young age from always winning the major matches.

Williams continued practicing and playing tennis all throughout her childhood, and won her first major championship in 1999 when she was 18. A few years later in 2003, she won the Grand Slam, which includes the four major matches in the tennis tournament.

In addition to her individual success, her victory at Wimbledon in 2015 made her the youngest Grand Slam singles champion in history.

Her biggest achievement was in the 2012 Olympics where she became the second woman to win the gold medal and win in all four of the Grand Slam Tournaments. Aside from the gold medal, Williams has 14 other wins from all of her other Grand Slam Tournaments.

Along with all of this success comes fame, and Williams handles her fame quite adequately as she constantly reminds the world that she is an ordinary person that is great at what she loves.

After her many outstanding achievements, she received a multitude of offers to appear in several films, and in response to this, she said, “I definitely have found a balance. I’ve had so many offers in the past to do different movies or different things and I always choose tournaments over it.”

Williams plans to continue playing tennis for a while, aiming for more than just one Olympic gold medal in her lifetime.

Freshman Vidhi Modi said,”Tennis is my favorite sport, so I follow all of the tournaments. There is no doubt in my mind that Serena Williams will win several more Olympic gold medals throughout her career.”

It is very likely for her to achieve this goal, as she has achieved several world records in tennis. This includes becoming the first player to have more than twice as many points as anyone else on the Women Tennis Association (WTA) ranking, and she is the highest earning female athlete of all-time for money received from winning games.

Williams’ net worth is nearly $145 million, which beats not only every female athlete in the world, but also famous male athletes like Cameron Newton from the Panthers, who has a net worth of approximately $126 million.

She plans to continue to beat many records and showcase her tennis skills in games to come.

What records do you think Williams will beat in the future?