Serena Williams held all four majors at once by beating her sister each time
Between the 2002 French Open and the 2003 Australian Open, Serena Williams won four major finals in a row, and every one of those finals was against her older sister Venus. The run became known as the Serena Slam. Together the sisters never lost a major doubles final, winning all 14 they contested.
Serena was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1981, the youngest of her mother's five daughters. Their father Richard, who had studied the backgrounds of sporting champions, moved the family to Compton, California, believing a tough neighbourhood would harden his girls. He home-schooled them, and Serena picked up a racket at four. When she was nine they moved to Florida so the sisters could train at Rick Macci's academy, and by 1991 she had a 46–3 junior record and led Florida's under-10 rankings.
Then her father did something unusual: he withdrew both girls from national junior tournaments, wanting them to go slowly, stay focused on school and avoid burning out. Experiences of racism also played a part. At 14 Serena tried to enter a professional event and was refused on age grounds; she filed an antitrust suit against the WTA, then dropped it at her parents' request. In late 1997, ranked 304th, she beat Mary Pierce and Monica Seles at one tournament, the lowest-ranked player of the Open Era to topple two top-ten opponents at a single event.
Her first major came at the 1999 US Open, where she beat world number one Martina Hingis and became the second African American woman after Althea Gibson to win a Grand Slam singles title. In 2002 she won the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open, beating Venus in each final, and rose to number one.
After injuries she surged again from 2012, taking Olympic singles gold and a second Serena Slam in 2014 and 2015. Her 23rd major, at the 2017 Australian Open, passed Steffi Graf's Open Era record. She also won four Olympic golds and spent 319 weeks at the top of the rankings.
Source: Serena Williams
