Serena Williams
Serena Williams
Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player and actress who is ranked No. 1 in women's singles tennis. The Women's Tennis Associationhas ranked her world No. 1 in singles on six separate occasions. She became the world No. 1 for the first time on July 8, 2002, and achieved this ranking for the sixth time on February 18, 2013. As of July 18, 2016, she has been ranked world No. 1 for 179 consecutive weeks, seven weeks shy...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth26 September 1981
CitySaginaw, MI
CountryUnited States of America
With my website, I'm really interactive. I've written a lot of things about me.
It's remarkable she [Venus Williams] plays at all, given her Sjögren's syndrome [an autoimmune disorder that can cause joint pain]. She's back, winning tournaments. She didn't allow society to tell her, "You have this disease; you can't do that anymore." I look at her, like, "She's not playing at 100 percent. You are. You don't have excuses." Knowing what she went through helped me try to be a more positive person.
I love "Phenomenal Woman." The experiences she had of being African American in the U.S. - that itself is a task. I appreciate the hardships Maya Angelou went through for our generation. I'm super influenced by the black people that paved the way for us.
Nothing comes to a sleeper but a dream.
Since I don't look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. To be different. But different is good.
I really hope that I can be helpful in that journey because I do believe that women deserve the same pay. We work just as hard as men do. I've been working, playing tennis, since I was three years old. And to be paid less just because of my sex - it doesn't seem fair.
I love who I am, and I encourage other people to love and embrace who they are. But it definitely wasn't easy - it took me a while.
I always say if I play my best it's difficult to beat me
I'm an athlete and I'm black, and a lot of black athletes go broke. I do not want to become a statistic, so maybe I overcompensate. But I'm paranoid. Oprah told me a long time ago, 'You sign every check. Never let anyone sign any checks.'
My smile is my favorite part of my body. I think a smile can make your whole body.
I've had to learn to fight all my life - got to learn to keep smiling. If you smile things will work out.
I'm a high-performance athlete: I'm running, I'm sprinting, I'm sliding, I'm doing pretty much everything and the last thing I want to worry about is my chest. I want to just worry about playing the sport at the highest level that I can.
Will I have to explain to my daughter that her brother is gonna make more money doing the exact same job because he's a man? If they both played sports since they were three years old, they both worked just as hard, but because he's a boy, they're gonna give him more money? Like, how am I gonna explain that to her? In tennis we've had great pioneers that paved the way - including Venus [Williams], who fought so hard for Wimbledon to pay women the same prize money they pay men, and Billie Jean King, who is one of the main reasons Title IX exists.
I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hope...and that's all I had.