With how dominant she’s been, and for how long, it’s easy to forget the beginning of Serena Williams’s career.
That is, until you remember that her career started off with dominance as well.
Serena won the first of her 23 grand slam singles title in 1999 and achieved the career grand slam of all four majors at the Australian Open in 2003 — giving her the “Serena Slam” as the holder of all four titles at the same time.
She hadn’t yet successfully defended a title but at Wimbledon later that year she met sister Venus in the final for the second year in a row.
Serena won 4-6 6-4 6-2 for her fifth grand slam title in six events — all against her sister.
“It wasn’t easy, I’ll tell you,” Williams told CNN’s Patrick Snell.
“It was a good three-set match, it was over two hours of play, so it was fun.”
Watch Serena’s 2003 interview with CNN World Sport at the top of the page.
