Records broken by Serena Williams in 2015

Serena’s autobiography “The Queen of the Court” is named aptly after the illustrious World No.1 player of 2015. Serena once quoted, “I can’t become satisfied, because if I get satisfied, I’ll be like, “Oh, I’ve won Wimbledon, I’ve won the U.S. Open. Now can I relax.”

But now people are really going to be fighting to beat me.”

She has followed the path of hard work, determination and perseverance ever since she picked up a tennis racket at the age of 3 years. There is a saying that “Talent alone cannot get you success, neither can being in the right place at the right time. The only thing that matters is whether you are ready.”

Serena was born talented but the she had to fight an uphill battle all the way to the Tennis glory. Her father played a major role as the official coach for both Serena and Venus. The family even moved from Compton to Florida so that the Williams sisters could concentrate more on tennis than anything else. Serena pulled out from the Junior Tennis championships and was trained by her father at home. Despite having no exposure in competitive tennis, she made it to the big scene. When she was asked about the same, her comments were,” Everyone does different things. I think for Venus and I, we just attempted a different road, and it worked for us.”  

Here’s an enumeration of all the records, the Queen of Courts broke down in 2015:

1. Upon Winning the Australian Open 2015

Serena went on to extend her own record from 5 titles to 6 in the Australian Open. The legend Steffi Graff(Read more about Steffi) has the next highest number of titles which is 4. Her shear dominance was witnessed in the quarter-finals match against the 2014 finalist Dominika, when she beat her hands down in the state of minor cold and cough by peerless scores of 6-2, 6-2.  She belted 18 aces in the match against Dominika with a ratio of 31 winners to 13 unforced errors. Then, she beat her fierce opponent Maria Sharapova in the finals by 6-3, 7-6, 7-5 to conquer the trophy after 5 years.

Maria Sharapova commented that, “She’s a competitor. She doesn’t like to give free points and free games. No matter the score she wants to win those games and those points, whether she’s down a break point or up a break point or whatever it is.”

She made another record after winning the Australian Open 2015 of being the only player, male or female, to complete the Career Golden Slam after turning 30 years of age (Wimbledon 2012, Olympics 2012, US Open 2012, French Open 2013, Australian Open 2015).

2. Upon winning the Wimbledon 2015

9 July, 2015 was the date when Serena Williams went onto carve her name in the record books again, when she subdued her blustery young opponent Gabrine Muguruza(Know more)in straight sets by 6-4, 6-4 to win her 6 Wimbledon title. With this victory, she became the oldest player to hold all the Grand Slam titles at the same time (US Open 2014, Australian Open 2015, French Open 2015, Wimbledon 2015). After wrapping up her own “Serena Slam”, she tweeted, “I can’t believe I’m standing here with another Serena Slam… I heard the I love yous, I love you more“.

However, she couldn’t win the Calendar Slam in 2015 only after Steffi Graf in 1988, and in a twist of fate, it was Gabrine Muguruza who stopped Serena’s brute force in the US Open 2015.

Upon winning the 2015 Wimbledon singles title, she became the only player, male or female, to win Grand Slam singles titles numbering in the double digits in two separate decades (Eleven in the 2000s and ten in the 2010s).

Her 21 Grand Slam title certainly tore upon all the record books as she became the oldest female player to win a Grand Slam singles title at 33 years and 289 days (Wimbledon 2015). The player behind her is Marion Bartoli, the 2013 Wimbledon Champion who retired after winning the Grand Slam at the age of 28 Years 277 Days.

She also became the oldest player to hold all Grand Slam titles in singles and the Olympic Gold simultaneously (US Open 2014-Wimbledon 2015, 2012 Olympics).

3. Upon winning the French Open 2015

The tennis fans were greeted with another extraordinary performance from the Queen Serena Williams in the month of May-June. Upon winning the clay-court tournament on 5 June, she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam losing five sets en-route to the title. 

Serena dominated her way in the 1 set to take a 1-0 lead but the No. 13 Safarova(Read more about Safarova) rallied several times to make the clash a nail-bitting affair than anyone ever anticipated. After going down 1-4 in the second set she came back into the match by winning four continuous games to take a lead of 5-4 and ultimately took the set, 7-6. Serena came back harder in the next set to take away the game and the tournament with a final scoreline of 6-3, 6-7, 6-2. An injured tiger pounces more fiercely onto its prey and that is what class Serena showed on, as she won despite having a flu.

After this match, she surpassed her previously owned record of having dropped 4 sets in the 1999 U.S Open and the 1998 Wimbledon as well.

Williams also became the first singles player since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to win the Australian Open and French Open in the same season.

4. She takes home a money bag!

Being the most successful and popular female tennis player in the Open Era, Serena breaks all the earning records just by taking into account the cash prizes she won in the tournaments.

She holds the record for most seasons (2) earning- $10,000,000 or more in 2013 and 2015.

She became the first, and only, woman to win US$70,000,000 in career prize money (in 2015).

The person second to her in cash prize winnings is Maria Sharapova whose earnings stands at a staggering $36 million, almost half of Serena’s prize. Serena features at 47th place in the list of “Highest paid Athletes of all time”, released by Forbes.

5. Awards and Rankings

Just like her streak of continuous and powerful aces, Serena has a streak maintained, when it comes to winning awards.

• On July 13, 2015, she became the 1st player to have more than twice as many points as anyone else on the WTA Rankings.
• She has been named the WTA Player of the Year for the 4 consecutive time.
• She accepted the 7 Player of the year Award in her career.
• Serena Williams has been named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in a vote by U.S. editors and news directors for the fourth time in her career.