Serena Williams

The transcendent and transformative star of women's tennis faces Danka Kovinic Monday night in her opening match of the U.S. Open.

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Williams said earlier this month that she plans to "evolve away from tennis" after the U.S. Open. Each match could be her last.

[The new Jackson Hole consensus: A more volatile world is here to stay](/2022/08/29/jackson-hole-global-economy-volatile) The bottom line: Win or lose tonight — or at any other point during this tournament — Williams' legacy is already set in stone. Open, where she's reached at least the semis in each of her last 11 appearances. And after winning singles gold at the 2012 Olympics, she became the only player with a [lawsuit filed by Trump](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/22/donald-trump-fbi-search-lawsuit) last week seeking the appointment of a special master to review the materials seized and prevent the FBI from examining the seized documents until the special master is in place. [Mar-a-Lago](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/08/donald-trump-home-raided-fbi) home may be protected by attorney-client privilege, the Department of Justice said in a [court filing](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.31.0_5.pdf) Monday. 1 rankings (man or woman). It could be the last time we ever get to see the GOAT in action. But despite reaching four finals since then, she remains stuck on 23. [rather unlikely](https://slate.com/culture/2022/08/serena-williams-retirement-us-open-expectations-legacy.html)for the 413th-ranked Williams. Make sure you're by a TV Monday night for Serena Williams' first-round match at the U.S. [earlier this month](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/10/serena-williams-retirement-us-open) that she plans to "evolve away from tennis" after the U.S.

What will the greatest player in women's tennis do next? By Jemele Hill. A photo of Serena Williams swinging a tennis racket. Cameron ...

She has been called [a man](https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/29672340), and of course subjected to [racial slurs](https://www.thequint.com/sports/tennis/serena-williams-activist-voice-against-racism). Her armor against these sickening attacks was to become the best player the sport has ever seen. [Williams opened up](https://www.vogue.com/article/serena-williams-vogue-cover-interview-february-2018) about the life-threatening complications she experienced after doctors performed an emergency Cesarean section when she gave birth to her daughter. When she [beat Nuria Parrizas-Diaz at the Canadian Open earlier this month](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/34369882/serena-williams-survives-opening-round-challenge-first-singles-win-year), it was her first singles-match victory in 14 months. Williams has been a cultural icon for so long, it’s hard to imagine that she would be anything less once she’s finally done with tennis. Characterizing all of this as evolution presumably takes the sting out of her leaving a sport to which she has devoted her life. Black women are [three times more likely than white women](https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/maternal-mortality/index.html) to die of pregnancy-related complications, so Williams’s public sharing of her ordeal became a powerful tool in the ongoing conversation about racial disparities in health care. Open match with Danka Kovinic tonight is indeed her last match ever at the Open (or if this is her last tournament appearance, period) Williams can retire knowing that words cannot fully describe what she’s meant for the sport, for women—especially Black women—and for American culture. Who else could win a major title while two months pregnant, as she did at the Australian Open in 2017? She wants to expand her family and dive even deeper into her numerous business enterprises, which include a venture-capital firm, Serena Ventures, that She and her sister Venus represent one of the most improbable success stories in American history. Even calling her one of the most dominant athletes in history feels confining.

The game-changing tennis player used her clothes as a statement of self and a weapon of change.

Williams jumped to actual Vogue in 1998, when she and her sister posed for the magazine in black and white Carolina Herrera, an appearance that heralded the start of a friendship with Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor (and tennis superfan), that has been by, Ms. Those “distractions” are in fact part of the bedrock of Ms. She even walked a Paris Fashion Week runway last March, for the [Off-White Virgil Abloh tribute show](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/01/style/virgil-abloh-off-white-paris-fashion-week.html). Flynn of Nike said, “the message.” It set off such a firestorm — the French officials deemed it a dress code violation — that her next outfit, a one-sleeve tutu worn to the U.S. “Of course, all of these semantics really just reinforce the white supremacy latent in the sport and justify the exclusion of any person or body that stands outside of the prescribed participants and audience. Ford said, in the style of “respectability politics,” to fit in. Williams’s honor, said that on a scale of 1 to 10 of involvement with her clothes, she is a 10. Williams knew “how many eyes and how many cameras were on her,” said John Hoke, the chief design officer of Nike, who has been working with her for almost 20 years. Literally, in the case of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, a.k.a. It was highly gendered, in the most stereotypical kind of way (this is a sport, after all, where until the late 20th century female tennis players wore frilly bloomers, like baby dolls, under their faux skirts) and very white. Williams in an array of evening gowns, was met with some head-scratching in the sports world, it should have surprised no one.

Serena and Venus Williams are pairing up for what could be the final time as doubles partners at the US Open. Here's when they'll be playing.

As a doubles pairing, Serena and Venus Williams have won the US Open twice. Serena Williams has won the US Open as a singles player six times, most recently in 2014. The channels for the match will not be announced until a time and date are given. The time and day for the Williams' sisters match has yet to be announced. Though Serena Williams has not said outright that the US Open will be the final tournament, Serena Williams ranks tied for 413th and Venus is unranked.

In addition to her 23 grand slam singles titles, she has also won 14 women's doubles and two mixed doubles slams. Williams has won singles tournaments at ...

In doubles, Williams and her sister have comprised one of the best pairings in tennis history. In seven different years, she has claimed at least two different grand slam victories, more than the six claimed by Navratilova. Graff spent 377 weeks as the No. During her career, Williams has been the No. Win All told, that's a record of 1,075-192. She also became the first woman to win the career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles when she earned that medal. She has also only lost 25 times in the finals of women's tennis tournaments. In addition to her success at grand slam events, she also holds four Olympic gold medals. She first pulled off the feat when she won the 2003 Australian Open after winning the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open in 2002. In the open era, Williams stands alone. In the history of tennis, only one player has won more grand slam singles titles than Williams' 23.

Serena Williams returns to the U.S. Open looking for one final run at a Grand Slam championship with her first match Monday night.

Williams returns to the U.S. "Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. "I think just the way she was able to (transcend) a sport that’s predominantly white … I think the only person I’ve really gone there with is my therapist. 1 player in the world was somebody who looked like me." It comes up, and I start to cry. Ahead of the first-round match, several sponsors paid homage to Williams and her legacy. "A love that started a movement. A movement to love exactly who you are." The theme “love means everything” showed how Williams stood for self-love in all areas of life. Beginning Monday, Williams steps onto the U.S. In 1999, Serena Williams stood center court at Arthur Ashe Stadium with an exuberant smile.

Ahead of her retirement and last US Open, here are the tennis GOAT's best and most empowering moments (including one where she gave Oprah a pedicure).

“Lo and behold, I had a blood clot in my lungs, and they needed to insert a filter into my veins to break up the clot before it reached my heart,” she writes. Oprah’s shock was real: “I can’t believe Serena Williams is actually filing my big toe,” she says in the video. I felt so guilty.” Taking Olympia to the hospital and caring for her through the night meant Williams slept about 30 minutes before heading into her match. “But I persisted,” Williams writes, and eventually, she got the CAT scan. Luckily, Williams finally got the surgery she needed and recovered from the near-death experience. “I am, was, and will always be happy for you and supportive of you,” she writes in an apology to Osaka. What ensued was a series of surgeries: Turns out, Williams had an embolism in an artery and a hematoma in her abdomen. “I don't know if I will be ready to win New York,” Williams writes of the possibility of grabbing a seventh title in the [Vogue essay](https://www.vogue.com/article/serena-williams-retirement-in-her-own-words) where she announced her retirement. “In the end, my opponent simply played better than me,” Williams writes in her essay. In her retirement announcement, Williams also notes the double standard as it applies to having children. “I am asking to be treated the same way as everyone else.” In her Vogue essay, Williams is straightforward about the difficulty of being a working mom.

She did things on her own terms and propelled herself to greatness, doing so in a sport that felt by design that it was off limits to Black people.”

I’ve been to the Cincinnati Open and I’ve been to the Miami Open. She is proud enough of her excellence to demand perfection of herself, and she has freed other women to do the same. I know she will shake things up when she is on the court. Sometimes when I’m in the bedroom and I hear her, I think something’s wrong. I had never been to a tennis tournament and had no idea that if a match is canceled, you don’t get your money back. It’s just amazing to see in the past decade how she is finally being adored for the treasure and icon she truly is. Just knowing her story and knowing how she had to advocate for herself, even to the physicians. [2007 Australian Open win](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/sports/27iht-web.0127tennis.4368100.html), where she was so heavily criticized for her weight and dedication to the sport. And I felt like I have to advocate for myself in the same way with my birthing story. It’s also in the fans she drew to tennis and the excitement she provoked among those who witnessed her greatness. When I was pregnant with my second child, John, I remember seeing her five-part documentary and watching her go through the whole birthing experience. Open is quite likely Williams’s last professional tournament, we asked readers to share personal memories of watching her play, and to tell of the emotions that she stirred.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion is going out in style. Serena will don head-to-toe diamonds at the US Open.

On her feet, Serena will lace up a diamond-encrusted special edition of the NikeCourt Flare 2, the brand's latest statement tennis sneaker. Nike is also providing Williams with a matching jacket and tote bag for her arrival, each featuring affixed crystals meant to shine bright through the evening tennis match. Designed months ago through insights from Williams, the tennis icon will take the court in a figure skating-inspired dress.

Serena Williams begins what is probably her final U.S. Open with a first-round match against Danka Kovinic. Follow along for the latest updates.

… I’m just beginning." I would have to wait until it gets light. Sometimes I wake up at like 6:00 in the morning to go practice and it was too dark. “I once heard Althea Gibson, one of her best friends told me she wanted to see another African American win a Slam before her time is up. Sept. Open 10 times and won the title six times, in 1999, 2002, 2008, 2012-14.