Serena Williams
From public courts in Compton to 23 Grand Slam singles titles, one of them won while pregnant
Serena Williams was born in Michigan and raised in Compton, Los Angeles, where her father Richard, who had taught himself tennis from books and videos, coached her and her older sister Venus on public courts that were sometimes strewn with glass. He pulled them out of the junior circuit to avoid burnout and racism, and the sisters were widely dismissed as a gimmick until they started winning.
She won her first Grand Slam at the US Open in 1999 at 17. Her career from there was not a smooth climb. In 2003 her half-sister Yetunde was shot dead in Compton. She had knee surgery, fell down the rankings and was written off more than once. In 2011, after cutting her foot on glass, she developed a pulmonary embolism and a haematoma that needed emergency surgery, and she has said she believed she might die.
She returned to win the 2012 Wimbledon and Olympic singles titles and went on to the best years of her career. In 2017 she won the Australian Open without dropping a set while about eight weeks pregnant, her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, a record in the open era.
The birth of her daughter nearly killed her, with further blood clots and multiple operations. She came back to reach four more Grand Slam finals before retiring in 2022, and has spoken openly about maternal health, especially for Black women.