--- title: Serena Williams Beat Roger Federer's Grand Slam Record description: The tennis champ surpassed Roger Federer's record Monday of most career Grand Slam match wins with 308 to her name. canonical: https://time.com/4479956/serena-williams-roger-federer-grand-slam-record/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-06T14:46:39.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:18.228Z og:title: Nike Ad Calls Serena Williams the ‘Greatest Athlete Ever’ og:description: Her recent US Open wins seem to prove it og:url: https://time.com/4479956/serena-williams-roger-federer-grand-slam-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3723faf8df9ce86a/6988a4e6f887dcab82e974da/serena-williams-grand-slam-roger-federer-record.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2016 US Open - Day 8 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nike Ad Calls Serena Williams the ‘Greatest Athlete Ever’ twitter:description: Her recent US Open wins seem to prove it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3723faf8df9ce86a/6988a4e6f887dcab82e974da/serena-williams-grand-slam-roger-federer-record.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nike Ad Calls Serena Williams the ‘Greatest Athlete Ever’ by [Jessie Van Amburg](/author/jessie-van-amburg/) ## Jessie Van Amburg Sep 6, 2016 2:46 PM CUT  NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 05: Serena Williams of the United States celebrates her win over Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan during her fourth round Women's Singles match on Day Eight of the 2016 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 5, 2016 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 05: Serena Williams of the United States celebrates her win over Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan during her fourth round Women's Singles match on Day Eight of the 2016 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 5, 2016 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.Al Bello/Getty Images by [Jessie Van Amburg](/author/jessie-van-amburg/) ## Jessie Van Amburg Sep 6, 2016 2:46 PM CUT After a disappointing [Olympics](http://time.com/4445918/serena-williams-olympics-tennis-elina-svitolina/ "undefined"), [Serena Williams](http://motto.time.com/4400847/serena-williams-quotes/ "undefined") has bounced back for a record-breaking performance at the U.S. Open. On Monday, the tennis champion and [_Lemonade_ guest star](http://time.com/4378426/beyonce-official-sorry-video/ "undefined") passed Roger Federer’s record for most career Grand Slam match wins with 308 to her name. The record number came after she defeated Yaroslava Shvedova in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. “It’s a huge number,” Williams told the [Associated Press](http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2016/09/serena-williams-overtakes-federer-for-most-slam-match-wins/60709/ "undefined") after the game. “I think it’s something that just really talks about the length of my career, in particular. I’ve been playing for a really long time. But also, given that consistency up there—that’s something that I’m really proud of.” Williams was recently hailed in a Nike ad as the “[greatest athlete ever](http://mashable.com/2016/09/01/serena-williams-nike-ad-goat/ "undefined").” The ad echoed the athlete’s July remarks at a [Wimbledon](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/serena-williams-greatest-athletes%5Fus%5F577e884ee4b0344d514e3d7d "undefined") press conference, when she said that she’d prefer to be called the greatest athlete of all time rather than the greatest female athlete. Records Williams still has left to beat: [Steffi Graf](http://time.com/4031951/serena-williams-us-open-roberta-vinci/ "undefined")‘s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam tournament titles (Williams is currently tied) and [Margaret Court](http://time.com/4032051/serena-williams-us-open-grand-slam/ "undefined")‘s all-time record of 24. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4479956/serena-williams-roger-federer-grand-slam-record/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4479956/serena-williams-roger-federer-grand-slam-record/"},"headline":"Nike Ad Calls Serena Williams the ‘Greatest Athlete Ever’","datePublished":"2016-09-06T14:46:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:18.228Z","description":"Her recent US Open wins seem to prove it","url":"https://time.com/4479956/serena-williams-roger-federer-grand-slam-record/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3723faf8df9ce86a/6988a4e6f887dcab82e974da/serena-williams-grand-slam-roger-federer-record.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessie Van Amburg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jessie-van-amburg/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3723faf8df9ce86a/6988a4e6f887dcab82e974da/serena-williams-grand-slam-roger-federer-record.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 US Open - Day 8","caption":"2016 US Open - Day 8","creditText":"Al Bello/Getty Images","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":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4479956/serena-williams-roger-federer-grand-slam-record/","name":"Nike Ad Calls Serena Williams the ‘Greatest Athlete Ever’"}}]}] ```