The Life and Success of Serena Williams

Black excellence; a term that is possibly defined as the recognition and celebration of the successes of the black community. Lacking from the definition is the idea that black excellence cannot be achieved without understanding its relation to apparent racist perpetrations. In the essay entitled “The Meaning of Serena Williams”, author Claudia Rankine states, “the notable difference between black excellence and white excellence is white excellence is achieved without having to battle racism. Imagine.” The prevalent absurdity exuded by this statement is the unfortunate reality we now inhabit.

Black excellence; a term possibly defined as the recognition and celebration of the successes of the black community. Lacking from the definition is the idea that black excellence cannot be achieved without understanding its relation to apparent racist perpetrations. In an essay discussing Serena Williams, entitled “The Meaning of Serena Williams”, by Claudia Rankine, she states, “the notable difference between black excellence and white excellence is white excellence is achieved without having to battle racism. Imagine.” The prevalent absurdity exuded by this statement is the unfortunate reality we now inhabit.

Serena is more than just a tennis player. She is a fashionable athlete. During a match in 2002, Serena was wearing a black lycra catsuit at the US Open. This was a number one discussion topic among sports enthusiasts at the time.

History has referred to her as "the Jackie Robinson of tennis" for breaking the color barrier. On August 22, 1950, Althea Gibson, an American sportswoman, became the first African-American woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour. She was the first to win a 'grand slam' title in 1957. She was a pioneer in both amateur tennis and professional golf forging a road for future greats to include Tiger Woods and Venus Williams. She was also the first black woman on the LPGA tour.

Serena Jameka Williams in an American professional tennis player who is ranked number 1 in the singles to six separate occasions. Serena is a tennis star and sporting legend who has to Her credit 32 major titles and several Olympic medals .She is the reigning champion of the French Open, Wimbledon and Olympic women’s singles and doubles. Williams is properly known as the greatest female tennis player of anll time. She is the most recent player, male or female, to have held all four major singles titles simultaneously.

Although Serena has had so much success in tennis, she is reminding her daughter that it’s okay not to follow her footsteps, but in whatever athletic path she takes, put her whole heart into it

In the first part of his lecture he talked about Claudia Rankine who is author and wrote an article about Serena Williams titled “The Meaning of Serena Williams.” In this article Claudia Rankine explains that Serena Williams has a title match against Jennifer Capriati.

Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer shows the dedication and drive that women had to have in order to be successful at sports in the twentieth contrary. Billie Jean King who came from a very athletic family first got her inspiration to succeed at sports from the athletic sermons she herd in church every Sunday as a young child. One of her friends was starting to play tenses and she wanted to start also. After working around the neighborhood to earn the money for her first racket, Billie Jean King overcame many obstacles along with great personal struggles to become the best professional tennis player of her time.

Serena and Venus Williams are both sisters and professional athletes who are competing to be the best in tennis. Serena Williams was born September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan she stared playing tennis in California at age five; Serena was home-schooled and coached by her parents. Serena and her family then moved from Compton to West Palm Beach when she was nine, she then attended rick macci’s academy, Serena later began playing professionally in September 1995 at age 15. Serena is a baseline player she takes immediate control of using a powerful serve and return with forceful groundstrokes. Serena serves can be up to 128mph. Serena has been in 21 grand slams single finals winning 17 titles, she has been in 13 grand slams double finals, winning them all. Serena partner with Sister Venus these scenarios, she’s been four grand slam mixed double finals winning two and coming runner-up two.

Nike, is arguably the most known brand out there. In the article that is reporting on Nike’s latest campaign, it is not only publicizing Nike, but Serena Williams as well. Nike is receiving the Internet’s coverage of media for free. Although Nike paid for the billboard, they did not pay for all of the publication they are getting from the Internet because of this article and many others like it. If Nike was aware of this happening, which I am sure they were, they picked Serena Williams to feature on their masterpiece because she is in the news often with her recent major wins in tennis. The article does a good job of listing her achievements; in turn this helps Nike out because an amazing and credited athlete is receiving praise from Nike.

Williams began playing tennis at the age of 5 on the courts of Compton, California. As a child, Serena faced a lot of stress. The neighborhood where

Serena has never let any problem or injury stop her from being the best, which helped her in her professional career. At the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Serena won gold with Venus in the Women's Double. She has over 100 career wins in singles, doubles, and teams including 4 olympic gold medals. She also has 22 singles and 14 doubles titles and 23 Grand Slam events. Besides being a professional tennis player, she is also an aspiring actress. She made two appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and presented awards on ESPN’s Espy Awards, the MTV Music Awards and the Teen Choice Awards. On television she has played roles in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Division, and the Street Time. She has also done an TV series, My Wife

She completed her first career grand slam in 2003, winning the French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon, in 2002, defeating her sister Venus in the finals of each tournament, as well as winning the Australian Open in 2003. She is only one of six women to complete a grand slam. She dubbed her winning of all of these major titles as the “Serena Slam”. She had a series of highs as well as a series of lows. She had knee surgery in August of the year 2003, and in September of that same year, her half-sister Yetunda Price was murdered in Los Angeles, California due to a random act of violence. Three years later Serena Williams fell to a ranking of 139 because she was no longer motivated to stay as fit as before and to compete on the same level. To renew her competitive spirit Serena went on a life-changing journey to West Africa, as well as writing and releasing an autobiography titled, Queen of the Court, in 2009. In 2009 she won her place back as ranking top in the world by winning the Australian Open singles for the fourth time as well as the Wimbledon singles for the third time. After this high, Serena hit another low when not everything went as smoothly as it could have been. She made headlines for calling out a lineswoman for a foot-fault that was called during her semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open. There was profanity and according to the lineswoman an alleged threat from Serena, against her life. Serena downplayed what happened saying that she didn’t threaten the woman, but the incident didn’t bode well for her reputation. She was fined $10,000 on the spot from the U.S. Tennis Association, and two months later she was placed on a two year probation and ordered to pay an additional fine of $82, 500 to the Grand Slam committee. This incident resulted in the largest punishment that was ever given to a tennis player. By 2010, moving past this incident she won the Australian Open singles and double

She has a very good all court movement and she made few errors in every match. Her wide backswing and sliding help her to reach the ball earlier. She likes to control the daily and can hit in very effective crosscourt and down the line flat shoes at the same time. It produces winners. Serena Williams in 2011 had ever said that Halep served well to be her height. She has much power on her serve and it was awesome. It made the Williams felt hard to play with that power on the grass court. She said that after 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 fights back at Wimbledon. Halep hard work has given the fabulous result to her. She becomes popular today and she made an awesome winner. She is total in this sport. She also did the breast reduction to reduce her bust size to 34C from the previous 34DD. The weight of it made her in trouble. Her brave decision makes her

Serena Williams is the best women's tennis player in the world today, and has been virtually unbeatable during much of the last two decades. At 33 years old, she is the oldest woman to win a grand slam event in the open era, she has 21 slam victories – just 1 behind Stephi Graf for the most in the open era, and is only three slam wins behind Margaret Court, the phenom of the 60s and 70s, for the most slam wins in history. If she wins the U.S. Open later his year, she will be the first woman to complete the calendar year slam since Graf did it in 1998. In doing so, she will also have tied Graf as the winningest woman in the Open Era and 2nd most in history, just 2 slam wins behind Court.