Time 23Mar2020

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