--- title: The Most Exceptional Athlete: Serena Williams description: Williams, 33, has trained since the age of 3 and is the no. 1 women’s tennis player in the world canonical: https://time.com/3935300/serena-williams-2/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-25T11:20:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:31:42.800Z article:section: Sports og:title: The Most Exceptional Athlete: Serena Williams og:description: Williams, 33, has trained since the age of 3 and is the no. 1 women’s tennis player in the world og:url: https://time.com/3935300/serena-williams-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Most Exceptional Athlete: Serena Williams twitter:description: Williams, 33, has trained since the age of 3 and is the no. 1 women’s tennis player in the world twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Most Exceptional Athlete: Serena Williams by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 25, 2015 11:20 AM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Jun 25, 2015 11:20 AM UTC In her 20 years of competing professionally, Williams has earned $69.7 million in prize money, more than any other female player in history. Now, with 35 major tournament titles under her belt, including her singles victory at the French Open in early June, Williams is at the top of her game. Headed into Wimbledon, she’s halfway to a Grand Slam this year. 268 Aces hit so far in 2015 competitions 128.6 Miles per hour (207 km/h) of her fastest recorded serve, at the Australian Open in 2013 3 Hours a day spent on the court $82,500 Fine paid to the Grand Slam committee for an outburst at the 2009 U.S. Open, the largest fine ever imposed on a tennis player 20 Grand Slam singles titles–so far; she holds the third most in the history of women’s tennis 15 Grand Slam doubles and mixed-doubles titles 4 Olympic gold medals–1 in women’s singles and 3 in women’s doubles, an all-time tennis record shared only by her sister Venus 1,539 Calories burned in an average best-of-three-sets match 1 Racket head smashed in half, after losing a set in 2014 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3935300/serena-williams-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3935300/serena-williams-2/"},"headline":"The Most Exceptional Athlete: Serena Williams","datePublished":"2015-06-25T11:20:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:31:42.800Z","description":"Williams, 33, has trained since the age of 3 and is the no. 1 women’s tennis player in the world","url":"https://time.com/3935300/serena-williams-2/","keywords":["tennis","serena williams"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3935300/serena-williams-2/","name":"The Most Exceptional Athlete: Serena Williams"}}]}] ```