The New York Times Editorial Staff - Serena Williams

DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Serena Williams in 2018.

Despite Williamss many accomplishments, her professional career has had its ups and downs. After becoming the top-ranked player in 2002, Williams was forced to undergo knee surgery in 2003, after which she took an eight-month break from tennis. Upon returning to the tour she struggled to compete and fell out of the top ten. Furthermore, sports commentators and fans accused her of being out of shape and lacking commitment to the sport, and many speculated that she would retire from tennis. Williams, however, had other ideas, and in 2009 she returned to number one.

Between 2013 and 2015 Williams reached the zenith of her career, earning the number one ranking in 2013 and maintaining it through 2014 and 2015. She won every Grand Slam tournament between the 2012 Wimbledon and the 2015 Wimbledon. After her 2017 Australian Open victory it was revealed that Williams won while eight weeks pregnant, and she subsequently took an extended break to focus on her pregnancy and newborn daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian.

Williams returned to tennis in early 2018 as an unseeded player, but managed to make it to the Wimbledon finals nonetheless.

Williams has fascinated the public for reasons beyond her exceptional tennis skills. She is known for fashion choices on the court and consequently has collaborated with various apparel brands including Puma and Nike and has run her own lines of apparel and accessories. She has also won the admiration and friendship of various celebrities, and her 2017 wedding to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian featured many high-profile guests, including Beyonce and Kim Kar-dashian West.

Extending her influence beyond the tennis court, Williams uses her platform to address various issues that are important to her. She has spoken out about driving while black, unequal pay for and treatment of women and particularly black women in tennis, the lower quality of health care received by pregnant black women of all income brackets, and numerous other issues.

Williams is responsible for ushering in a new era in tennis, breaking records and taking a stand on some of the most pressing contemporary political and social issues. She has changed how tennis is viewed by the public and become a role model in the process, breaking down barriers for a new generation of athletes. This volume explores the many sides of Williams as a top athlete and celebrity, exploring the complexities of her long and storied life in the spotlight.

Serena Williams made her professional debut at the age of 14 in 1995. Since then, she has battled Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Jennifer Capriati, Martina Hingis and her own older sister, Venus, to ascend to the top of the Women's Tennis Association. Some questioned whether she could possibly be as good as Venus or if she was too young and immature to be a top tennis pro. In 1999 Serena became a top-ten player, and in 2003 she won four consecutive Grand Slams, proving herself a star even at an incredibly young age.

BY ROBIN FINN | OCT. , 1995

for a while it appeared Serena Williams, the younger sister of the phe-nom Venus, was about to start her own tennis career this month with a real bang: by filing an antitrust lawsuit against the womens tour because its age eligibility rules prohibit her from turning professional at age 14 the way her famous sister did a year ago.

It was originally Serenas mission to finagle herself a wild-card entry into the $430,000 Bank of the West Classic starting Oct. 30 in Oakland, Calif. This is the very event where the 327th-ranked Venus, who has a multimillion-dollar contract with Reebok, made a two-round professional splash in 1994 and will play her third and final event for 1995. But Serena, who turned 14 last week, did so without enlisting the