Legacies.

 

2010 started with Serena Williams losing to Elena Dementieva in Sydney. At the Australian Open, Serena Williams was the defending champion in both singles and doubles. She reached the final and defeated Justine Henin, who had just recently come out of retirement. Serena Williams earned her twelfth Grand Slam singles title in 2010. In the doubles, Serena and Venus Williams successfully defended their title by defeating Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the finals. For the new few events, Serena Williams withdrew to deal with a leg injury. She returned at the Rome Master and lost to Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals. At Madrid, she fell to Nadia Petrova in the third round, but she partnered with Venus to win the doubles title. Williams's next tournament was Wimbledon, where she defeated Russian Vera Zvonareva in the final without facing a break point and breaking the serve of Zvonareva three times. Serena did not lose a set in the tournament.

After the match, Martina Navratilova said that Serena Williams is in the top five of all the women's tennis players in all of history, which she said that "it's not just about how many Slams you win or how many tournaments you win—it's just your game overall. And she's got all the goods." Serena was the defending champion in doubles with her sister Venus, winning the last two years. They lost in the quarterfinals to Elena Vesnina and Zvonareva. In Munich on July 7, Williams stepped on broken glass while in a restaurant, and the injury caused her to miss the rest of the year. Williams ended the year ranked No. 4 in singles after six tournaments, and No. 11 in doubles after four tournaments. On March 2, 2011, she confirmed that she had suffered a hematoma and a pulmonary embolism. Everything changed from 2011 to 2013 when Serena Williams reached a new level of dominance. By 2012, she won her fourth U.S. Open singles title and her 15th career Grand Slam title overall beating Azarenka in the final. Serena Williams was named International Tennis Federation World Champion in 2012. She worked with Venus Williams to win their fifth Wimbledon doubles title and their 13th grand slam doubles title. They defended their 2012 Olympic doubles titles. They are the only tennis players to win four gold medals. In 2013, she won her fifth U.S. Open title. Serena Williams became the oldest U.S. Open champion in the Open Era and pushed her career prize past $50 million. By 2013, she was ranked No. 1 in the world for the third time being the oldest No. 1 player in WTA history. She earned Both Best Female Athlete and Best Female Tennis Player awards at the 2013 ESPY Awards. By December of 2013, Serena Williams received the Associated Press 2013 Female Athlete of the Year award, her third AP award after 2002 and 2009. Only Chris Evert and Babe Didrikson (one of the greatest athletes in human history) were the women chosen more than Serena Williams. 

From 2014 to 2015, Serena Williams made more successful. She defended her title at Brisbane International by defeating No. 2 Victoria Azarenka in the final. She won the Miami Open in 2014. She won her U.S. Open singles titles in 2014 too. By 2015, Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova for the 16th conservative time to claim her 6th Australian Open singles title and her 19th career Grand Slam singles title. This victory made Williams surpass both Evert and Navratilova for the 2nd most Grand Slam titles won in the Open Era. Serena Williams is the only player in history to win all four Grand Slams at least once after having turned 30 years old. She had her second Serena Slam in 2015. She was number one in 2016. In 2016, Serena Williams defeated Angelique Kerber in a rematch at Wimbledon. She equaled Steffi Graf's record of 22 Grand Slams in the Pen Era. This was her 71st career WTA title overall. She won her 6th Wimbledon doubles title and 14th doubles Grand Slam title overall. In 2017, she won her 8th Australian Open final defeating her sister, Venus That was her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, surpassing Steffi Graf's Open record of 22. This was the first time in the Open Era those 2 players aged 35 or older had competed in the final of a Grand Slam tournament. She was No. 1 in ranking in 2017. Also, on April 19, 2017, Serena Williams said that she was 20 weeks pregnant and would miss the remainder of the season. She might have been 8 to 9 weeks pregnant when she won the Australian Open. Her daughter was born on September 1, 2017 whose name is Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. 

From 2018 to 2022, Serena Williams competed hard. She lost to a new start Naomi Osaka of Japan in 2018. By 2020, Serena Williams won her first singles title as a mother at the 2020 ASB Classic, defeating Jessica Pegulas in the final. She worked with Caroline Wozniacki in the doubles tournament but lost to Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend. Serena Williams is the first woman in the professional era with at least one title in the four decades of the 1990's, the 2000's, the 2010's, and the 2020's. THAT MEANS THAT SERENA WILLIAMS IS THE GOAT. Serena Williams was the first player in history to reach the semifinals of the Grand slam and U.S. Open in the four decades of the 1990's, the 2000's, the 2010's, and the 2020's. By May of 2021 in the Italian Open, Serena Williams played her 1000th match of her career. By early 2022, she promoted the film King Richardd about her father and her sisters. She was at the 94th Academy Awards. By August 2022, Serena Williams wrote for Cogue that she wants to evolve away from tennis. Serena Williams wants to grow her family, work on her venture capital firm, and spend more time with her family. Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff said that they are inspired by Serena Williams. Today, Serena William is that icon of sports and culture that tons of people admire worldwide.

The legacy of Sister Serena Williams is extremely monumental. With her accomplishments alone, Serena Williams is easily the best woman tennis player of all time. She is also one of the greatest athletes of all time too. In 2017, BBC Sport users picked her as the greatest women tennis player of the Open Era. BBC presenter and former French Open Champion Sue Barker said, "Serena is the greatest because this era is so much more competitive than previous eras. The pace she generates her serve is without question the greatest ever combined with her movement and her power, and she pushes her opponents constantly on the back foot." By 2018, a Tennis.com panel selected Serena Williams as the greatest woman tennis player of all time. In 2018, Federer said that Serena Williams has the best case for the Greatest of All Time in tennis, whether man or woman. In 2022, John McEnroe said that Serena Williams is an icon and the GOAT of GOATs. Serena Williams and Venus Williams also worked to promote pay equity in tennis and helped to increase diversity in the sport. There were black icons in tennis for decades, but the Williams Sisters promoted that diverse representation to the next level. Now, we see a more diverse group of tennis-playing athletes at the professional level. That is why Sloane Stephens (former U.S. Open Champion), Coco Gauff (a French Open finalist), and Naomi Osaka (a four-time Grand Slam champion) have thanked Serena Williams and Venus Williams for playing tennis in general. Serena Williams' involvement in social activism, philanthropy, fashion, and helping to expand the power of human expression are blessings. She refutes the old lie that femininity is not related to strength. Femininity is diverse and is definitely related to strength indeed. 

There is the story of Mary Rosalyn Spurlock that must be shown too. She was my late 3rd cousin. She was born on April 11, 1942, in Suffolk, Virginia. She passed away on July 10, 2017. She was a direct descendant of my 5th grandmother Zilphy Claud. She married Leavell E. Ricks Jr. (1940-2001), Their 2 children are my 4th cousins who are David Keith Ricks (b. 1961) and Derek Leavell Ricks Sr. (b. 1963). Mary Rosalyn Spurlock's grandsons are Derek Leavell Ricks Jr. (b. 1990. His parents are Derek Leavell Ricks Sr. and Diahnn Renee Ricks. Diahann was born in 1966) and Demetrius. Mary Spurlock Rick's siblings are Thomas Lawrence McGlore Spurlock Jr. (1938-2018), Larry Nelson Spurlock (b. 1952-2020. Larry's daughter is Angel Edwards from the Washington, D.C. area), and Kenneth Stuart Spurlock Sr. (1940-2020). My late 3rd cousin Kenneth Stuart Spurlock Sr. married Shirley Odessa Greene (b. 1938) on June 13, 1961, in Suffolk, Virginia. Their child is Kenneth Stuart Spurlock Jr. (b. 1961). The couple of Kenneth and Shirley Spurlock divorced on July 13, 1966, in Suffolk, Virginia. So, Mary Rosalyn Spurlock's father was Lawrence McGlore Spurlock (1917-1996). Mary's grandmother was Mary Lee Williams (1890-1938). Mary's great grandmother was Adaline Hill (1862-1930). Mary's 2nd great grandfather was Tom Hill (1838-1915), and her 2nd great grandmother was Sarah Claud. Mary's 3rd great grandmother was Zilphy Claud (1820-1893). 

By Timothy