Serena Williams, an American tennis star, ranks among the most dominant players in women’s tennis. She is noted for her muscular body, her powerful shot making, and her foot speed.
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Game, set, match, career! One of the most dominating players in women’s tennis, Serena Williams, has retired from the sport. In August 2022, Williams announced her plans to retire after the US Open. She waved goodbye to fans and other players after losing her match against Australian Ajla Tomljanović on September 2nd. Williams is noted for her muscular body, her powerful shot making, and her foot speed. In 1999, Williams won the US Open, defeating top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland. Williams became the first African American woman to win a grand slam event since Althea Gibson won the tournament in 1958. The grand slam consists of the Australian Open, French Open, US Open, and Wimbledon in England.

Serena Williams, shown here at the Nasdaq-100 in 2003, is one of the most dominant players in women’s professional tennis.
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In 2002, Williams won the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She gained the number-one ranking for the first time that year. She defeated her sister Venus in the final match in each tournament. When she defeated Venus for the Australian Open championship in 2003, she became only the fifth woman to hold all four grand slam titles at the same time. Serena also won Wimbledon in 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2016; the Australian Open in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2017; the US Open in 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2014; and the French Open in 2013 and 2015.

She defeated her sister for the 2009 Wimbledon title and the 2017 Australian Open title. At the 2017 Australian Open, Serena won her 23rd grand slam title, setting a record for the most grand slam singles titles in the open era. The open era began in 1968, when the International Tennis Federation allowed professional players to compete in major tournaments. Previously, only amateurs could compete in such tournaments. Only the Australian Margaret Smith Court, who began playing before the open era, has won more grand slam singles titles, with 24.

Serena won the gold medal in women’s singles at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Serena and her sister also won the gold medal in women’s doubles in 2000, 2008, and 2012. Serena and Venus have won all four grand slam women’s doubles titles, though not in the same year.

Serena Jameka Williams was born on Sept. 26, 1981, in Saginaw, Michigan, and grew up in Compton, California. She began playing tennis at about the age of 5 under the guidance of her father, Richard. She turned professional in 1995. Williams discussed her personal life and her tennis career in the memoir On the Line (2009).

Australian tennis player Ash Barty
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Australia is famous for its unique culture, metropolitan cities, and unusual wildlife, among other things. Each week, this seasonal feature will spotlight one of Australia’s many wonders.

Many tennis players spend their careers in pursuit of the legendary Wimbledon. Considered tennis’s most prestigious championship, the tournament has inspired athletes, children, and even a romantic comedy. The latest player to earn the coveted title of Wimbledon champion is Ash Barty, a woman of indigenous Australian descent.

In 2021, Barty won the Wimbledon singles title. Barty is a talented Australian professional tennis player. Barty is a versatile right-handed player with an excellent serve. She has won a number of singles and doubles titles.

Barty’s first grand slam event win came in doubles at the 2018 US Open (with partner CoCo Vandeweghe of the United States). The grand slam consists of the Australian, French, and US Open tournaments, and the All-England (Wimbledon) Championships. Barty won her first grand slam singles title at the 2019 French Open, after which the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) ranked her as the top singles player in the world. Barty became only the third Australian woman to achieve a number one ranking. Evonne Goolagong Cawley briefly held the WTA top slot in 1976, and Margaret Court was named number one several times in the 1960′s and 1970′s, before the WTA began releasing its rankings.

Ashleigh Barty was born on April 24, 1996, in Ipswich, Queensland. She began playing tennis at age five, reaching professional status in 2010 at age 14. In 2011, Barty won the girls’ singles title (for players aged 14 through 17) at Wimbledon, in England. She joined the WTA Tour in 2012 but quit tennis in 2014 to play semi-professional women’s cricket. Barty returned to tennis in 2016. She won her first WTA title at the Malaysian Open in 2017.

Barty’s family has roots among the Ngarigo Indigenous people. In 2018, she was named National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador by Tennis Australia, the country’s governing body for the sport. In 2020, Barty was named Young Australian of the Year for her achievements.

April 8, 2020

Today, April 8, Behind the Headlines was originally scheduled to cover this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championships in the United States. However, the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments were canceled in March because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The tournaments were not alone: nearly all sports leagues and sporting events have been suspended or canceled because of COVID-19, putting sports on hold in all corners of the globe. COVID-19 is a pneumonia-like disease caused by a coronavirus, a type of virus that also causes the common cold and other diseases of the upper respiratory system. To date, COVID-19 has killed more than 80,000 people among nearly 1.5 million confirmed cases.

Dodger Stadium sits empty in Los Angeles, California. Baseball stadiums, usually teeming with people at this time of year, are going unused throughout the world as leagues have been suspended or canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: John McCoy/Getty Images

All collegiate and high schools sports in the United States were suspended or canceled because of COVID-19 (the schools were then closed), and Little League Baseball, too, had to put off the start of its season. In professional sports, Major League Baseball, which had begun its annual spring training, canceled all exhibition games on March 12 and indefinitely delayed the start of the regular season. Minor League Baseball shut down, as did baseball leagues in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and other countries. The National Basketball Association suspended its season on March 11, and basketball leagues in other countries were also shut down. The recently launched XFL football league suspended its first season on March 12, and the fledgling Basketball Africa League also lost its inaugural season, which had been scheduled to start on March 13.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo until 2021. Credit: Pakpoom Phummee/Shutterstock

Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League suspended their seasons in March, and other hockey and soccer leagues around the world were forced to do the same. Rugby and cricket leagues and tournaments were suspended, as were the upcoming Masters Tournament, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and British Open golf competitions. In tennis, Wimbledon was canceled for the first time since World War II (1939-1945), and the French Open was postponed. The Kentucky Derby horse race and the Indianapolis 500 auto race were postponed, and the Monaco Gran Prix auto race was canceled. (All three races are usually run in May.) Marathons around the world have been canceled or postponed, and athletes of all types will have to wait for the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which were postponed a year until July 2021.

This illustration of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) shows the spikes on the outer surface of the virus that appear as a corona, giving the virus its name. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of sports continued to be played without fans in attendance, but fears for the safety of athletes quickly led to the canceling of the competitions themselves. Suspended and postponed sports leagues and events have issued optimistic timelines about when they will resume or take place. All timelines, however, depend on the containment or continued spread of COVID-19.

The sports cancellations are part of social distancing, also known as physical distancing, an effort to slow or stop the spread of a contagious disease by limiting contact between people. Social distancing is most effective against illnesses that can be transmitted by coughing or sneezing, direct or indirect physical contact, or through the air. Typical social distancing measures call for the closing of such public places as sports arenas, schools, restaurants, museums, and many offices and stores. They may also call for people to maintain a distance of around 6 feet (2 meters) between them in public places.

The finals of the Australian Open tennis championships are played in the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. This year, some news sources have reported that players guilty of match fixing are playing in the tournament. © Bob Martin, Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

January 20, 2016

Charges have been raised of widespread match fixing in men’s professional tennis. A report issued this week by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and an American Internet media company called BuzzFeed News claims that not only have matches been fixed, but that tennis authorities knew of the problem but ignored it.

The report did not name players, but it stated that the fixing involves a group of 16 players who have been ranked in the top 50, including a US Open champion. Eight of the players were participating in the 2016 Australian Open in Melbourne, which runs from January 18 to January 31. The matches were fixed to affect betting odds.

Tennis authorities were quick to reject the report. The chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which oversees men’s professional tennis, said tennis authorities “absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match fixing has been suppressed for any reason or isn’t being thoroughly investigated…. While the BBC and BuzzFeed reports refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information.”

The media reports stated that a 2007 ATP inquiry found betting syndicates in Russia, Italy, and Sicily made hundreds of thousands of dollars betting on matches that investigators believed were fixed. A 2008 confidential report for tennis authorities claimed that 28 players involved in the Wimbledon tournament should be investigated, but the accusations were never addressed.

A number of leading players said they are unaware of any match fixing today. Men’s champion Novak Djokovic said rumors existed of match fixing in the past and that they were dealt with, but that he hasn’t heard anything in the past 6 or 7 years. He did say that in 2007 someone tried to offer him about $200,000 to lose a first-round match in Russia. He said the offer was immediately rejected. Women’s champion Serena Williams said she had heard nothing about match fixing, and Roger Federer said he wanted to hear names. “It’s nonsense,” he said, “to answer something that is pure speculation.”