Time 23Mar2020

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2003 | THE CHAMPION

SERENA

WILLIAMS
BY SEAN GREGORY

AfTer winning The 2003 AusTrAliAn Open,
Serena Williams became just the fifth woman in
tennis history to hold the titles of all four Grand
Slam tournaments—the Australian Open, the
French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open—
at the same time. She gave her feat an alliterative
flourish that neatly spoke truth to her power: the
Serena Slam. Williams even bested her closest con-
fidante, older sister Venus, in the final of all four of
those major championships. “I’d kind of like to be
just like her,” said Venus, at the time a four-time
Grand Slam winner, after that Aussie Open final.
Williams was just 21 years old. If she’d peaked
then, she would have earned accolades as an all-
time great. But nearly two decades and 23 major
titles—a record for the Open era—later, she has
more clout than ever.
Her influence extends far beyond the baseline.
Critics have called her racist names and tried to
shame her for her muscular frame. But Williams
has embraced her body, and her blackness, with
the same force as one of her two-handed back-
hands: even her occasional outbursts at umpires
spark national debates about decorum and dou-
ble standards.
She’s battled injuries and life-threatening ill-
nesses, including a complicated delivery of her
daughter Olympia in 2017. Months later, how-
ever, Williams returned to the women’s tour, at
36, as the world’s most famous working mom.
She’s since reached the finals of four major events,
showing that women can embrace motherhood
and a job as time-consuming and physically
grueling as professional tennis.
In her decades of greatness, Williams has in-
spired a new generation of tennis talent, young
women of color who, like her, dared to take up
what’s long been a lily-white sport. Rising stars
Naomi Osaka, 22, and Coco Gauff, 15, idolized
Williams. Gauff grew up in Florida with her
poster on her wall. Williams has not only taken
women’s tennis to new heights. She has secured
her legacy in the generations that will follow her.

WILLIAMS CLINCHES HER FOURTH-ROUND
VICTORY AT THE 2003 AUSTRALIAN OPEN

O’CONNOR: FRED SCHILLING—ZUMA; MAATHAI: ANTONY NJUGUNA—REUTERS/NEWSCOM; WHISTLEBLOWERS: JOHN CHAPPLE—SHUTTERSTOCK; WILLIAMS: DAVID GRAY—REUTERS 85

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