--- description: Women's tennis superstar Serena Williams was named Sports Illustrated's 2015 Sportsperson of the Year on Monday title: Serena Williams Is Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a9feae1f1f78a4b/6988752be20a871195a8ea13/si-cover-2015-sportsperson-of-the-year.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Sports](/section/sports/) ## Sports Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [tennis](/tag/tennis/) ## tennis Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Serena Williams Is _Sports Illustrated_'s Sportsperson of the Year by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 14, 2015 1:31 PM CUT  Sports Illustrated by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 14, 2015 1:31 PM CUT Women’s tennis superstar Serena Williams was [named _Sports Illustrated_‘s 2015 Sportsperson of the Year](http://www.si.com/sportsperson "undefined") on Monday morning, capping a year in which she won 53 of 56 matches and closed to within one win of the record for Grand Slam singles titles. Williams, 34, had a dominant 2015 even as she battled injury, boasting the No. 1 ranking in the sport every week for the second year in a row. She narrowly missed the first calendar year Grand Slam when she suffered an upset loss during the US Open in September. “I didn’t want to necessarily put a fist through a wall—I felt more like, Ah, man, I was _so_ close!” Williams told the magazine. “I’ll always think about what I could have done better. Could I have come up on the net? Been more consistent? It’s not anger. It’s analyzing: What can I do next time?” [Read the full story at Sports Illustrated](http://www.si.com/sportsperson "undefined") **MORE** [Serena Williams on Why She Went Back to Indian Wells](http://time.com/3694659/serena-williams-indian-wells/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/"},"headline":"Serena Williams Is Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year","datePublished":"2015-12-14T13:31:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:20:07.062Z","description":"After a dominant 2015 in women's tennis","url":"https://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/","keywords":["tennis"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a9feae1f1f78a4b/6988752be20a871195a8ea13/si-cover-2015-sportsperson-of-the-year.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3a9feae1f1f78a4b/6988752be20a871195a8ea13/si-cover-2015-sportsperson-of-the-year.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sports Illustrated Sports Person of the Year","caption":"Sports Illustrated Sports Person of the Year","creditText":"Sports Illustrated","representativeOfPage":true}],"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":"/tag/tennis/","name":"tennis"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/","name":"Serena Williams Is Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Serena Williams on Her Biggest Influence","description":"Serena Williams talks about the importance of family.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zdwprGtE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-24T10:24:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zdwprGtE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/","duration":"PT58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```