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[Narrator] In the late 1990s,
two sisters emerged

from out of nowhere to take
the tennis world by storm.

[Cecil Harris] When these two
girls came along

with so much confidence,

so much of a belief,
who are black, they do not come

from a tennis background,
people could sense

that tennis was changing.

[Narrator] The Williams sisters
were a phenomenon,

and by the turn
of the millennium,

younger sibling, Serena,

eclipsed her older sister,
Venus, and began

to leave her
rivals in the dust.

[Rick Macci]
When Serena Williams...

when she was on her front foot

in your face, you had no chance.

[Julie Cart]
She was different.

She was powerful.

She was really aggressive.

She mowed through the
best players at the time.

[Caitlin Thompson] 2002 is
really when Serena goes solo.

She's playing so amazingly and
so far ahead of everybody else

that it is hard to ever really
keep her in conversation

as the Williams sisters.

She's now just Serena Williams,
or even just "Serena."

[Narrator] And where
Serena's talent

was reinvigorating tennis,

her striking appearance
both on and off the court

sent shockwaves
through popular culture.

[Analis Bailey]
She's Serena Williams.

She is more than an athlete.

She can design clothes
for fashion week.

She can wear what she wants to
wear and inspire other people.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
Serena was telling people,

you can be strong and feminine.

You can be beautiful,
but you are still out there

to kick butt.

She had become her own celebrity
outside of sports,

and people knew
her name everywhere.

[Narrator] Having
overcome antagonism

both within the tennis
establishment

and across the wider media,
after a period of decline,

Serena returned
stronger than ever.

[Analis Bailey] It's Serena
against the world.

As she ages, it's going
to keep getting better.

That decade-long period of her
cranking out these titles

is unprecedented.

[Narrator] This is the story
of Serena Williams'

remarkable journey
from a Compton prodigy

to a global icon.

[Rick Macci] I think she's the
greatest athlete of all time,

in all sports.

What she's done and the ripple
and the cascade,

this is what
dreams are made of.

You cannot make
this stuff up.

♪

♪

[Narrator]
September 2022.

Fans arrive in
Flushing Meadows, New York,

for the US Open
Tennis Championships.

And this year, there is
a bittersweet mood as crowds

will witness the end
of a remarkable era.

Having revealed in a Vogue
Magazine interview

that she's stepping away from
the sport, Serena Williams,

often credited as the greatest
player of all time

is entering
her final tournament.

40 years old and ranked 605th
in the world, she has made

a surprise return from
an injury that looked

set to end her career.

But Serena is retiring
on her own terms.

Serena Williams's final US Open
appearance coming on

as it did the heels of this
announcement in Vogue

that she was evolving away
from the game of tennis,

I think gave everybody
in the sport a real moment

to kind of grapple with
the enormity of her legacy.

[cheering]

Being in the stadium as she
played those last couple matches

and had those last couple
of victories was a real gift.

[Narrator] The mood is both
celebratory and downbeat.

Tennis fans lament the end
of a monumental career,

but also acknowledge the full
impact of Serena's historic

accomplishments
both on and off the court.

She is not only the embodiment
and the actual demonstration

of the American dream, but
she is inspiring to all those

who aspire to
something like that.

She's a legend as far as sports
goes, not only as just

an athlete but a female,
and then on top of that,

a black female as well.

Someone that has been impacted
heavily by black females

as far as my mothers and aunts,
and now I have daughters,

I just thought it was
important to witness

and be a part of history.

[Narrator] Having emerged as a
distinct outsider at the close

of the 20th century,
she has helped to transform

both tennis and popular culture
itself in the 21st.

[Analis Bailey]
Everything she did

and everything
she accomplished

set the tennis world up to keep
wanting to strive for more.

[Cecil Harris] Serena did more
to change women's tennis

than anyone else.

The young players who are
emerging today are part

of that legacy because many
of them will tell you

they're only playing tennis
because they saw

Serena Williams.

[Caitlin Thompson] She's brought
this wave of people into tennis.

And by people, I don't
necessarily mean women

or people of color,
although yes, but just made it

so much more in conversation
with the larger culture.

Tennis had gotten very stale and
corporate and white and male,

and what Serena brought
to tennis, especially

as the late 90's turned
into the 2000s and the 2010s,

and she really hit her peak
where she is going

for the Serena Slam, which
is a number of slams in a row,

getting gold medals, appearing

on fashion covers,
going down runways,

learning different languages.

She just became so enormous
as a cultural force.

She reignited the imaginations
of what tennis could be.

[Narrator] But her journey to
become such a towering

cultural figure
was not without its obstacles.

Her struggle to be recognized
as one of the greatest

American athletes of all time,
a testament to her tenacity

and her endurance.

And few could have foreseen how
revelatory she would become

when her story in the public
eye first began

almost 30 years beforehand.

♪

Los Angeles, 1994.

The word is out on the
West Coast tennis circuit

that a prodigiously talented
young black player has emerged,

making waves in the lower
levels of the game.

Her name is Venus Williams.

[Julie Cart] I kept hearing
about Venus Williams.

I live in Los Angeles,
they're from Los Angeles.

It was a rumor or someone
who was talked about,

and there was a tournament
in San Francisco

that Venus played in,
an indoor tournament,

and was a huge sensation.

Everything about her was
different and interesting.

She was just very, very good.

[Cecil Harris] When Venus made
her debut in 1994, that's what

really got me
interested in tennis.

I'd covered some
US Opens, but I was not

emotionally invested
in the sport.

There was no one who really
captured my imagination

until I saw the
14-year-old Venus.

That was because of her talent
and because of her father,

Richard Williams, basically
saying, "My daughter

is going to be
the best player in the world,"

and people thought he was nuts.

[Narrator] The outlandish claims
of Venus's father and coach,

Richard Williams, helped
to quickly push his daughter

into the media spotlight.

But it soon emerged that Venus
wasn't the whole story,

as Richard also announced that
she had a younger sibling,

Serena, who he believed
would eventually

eclipse her older sister.

[Julie Cart] The Serena drumbeat
came from Richard Williams,

who said, "I have this
great daughter Venus.

"She's fabulous.

"You ain't seen nothing yet.

Wait till you see
the second one."

[Cecil Harris] I got to
interview Richard Williams.

He said, "Serena's going
to be even better."

I said, "Why?"
"Two reasons," he said.

"Serena understands
angles better

and the second thing
is she's meaner."

Serena will probably
be a better player than Venus.

Uh, that's not to compare my
girls, but she will be.

And her main strength, Serena,
she's just like a pit bull.

She wants to tie in on you,
she wants you real bad.

And if you get a player that
enjoys the battle like she does,

that's what you're looking for.

She has every quality that you
would see in Mr. Jimmy Connors,

someone who just
really wants to do it.

And that's Serena's strength.

He talked about her and he was
like an old-time huckster.

He was like, "Step right up.
I got a great kid coming up!"

And you wanted to roll your eyes
because he was a bit

of a bombastic person.

But no one had seen her
at a tournament.

But when she busted out,
she busted out.

[Narrator] And that eventually
happened in Chicago

for the 1997 Ameritech Cup.

Only 16 years old and ranked
304th in the world,

Serena Williams beat world
number seven, Mary Pierce,

and number four,
Monica Seles.

And the whole tennis world
suddenly stood up

and took notice.

[Julie Cart] It was an
announcement if there

ever needed to be,

and the way the sport is run,
you have the capacity

to just zoom up the rankings,
especially when you

beat really high-ranked players.

So that didn't last long, that
whole idea of she's only

seeded or ranked
300th in the world. Ha ha.

I can assure you no one
took her lightly after that.

No one.

[Narrator] But as the talent
of both Williams sisters

became clear, they were not
welcomed with open arms

by the tennis establishment.

Their sudden appearance
on the professional circuit

was a challenge to the
conventions of the sport.

What really, to me, is so
notable about Venus and Serena

is that they didn't come up
through the USTA,

the United States Tennis
Association, which is our

governing body here in the US.

It's the largest of them all.

It was conventional wisdom that
the USTA would be the pathway

to becoming a professional
tennis player.

It cannot be overstated, the
fact that the Richard Williams,

the father of Venus and Serena,
did not allow his daughters

to play any of the USTA
tournaments at all.

[Julie Cart] Basically, they
were being prepped and prepared

for the professional game.

So they were leapfrogging over
the junior tennis circuit

and all that that entails.

This is where you learn
the tennis etiquette,

or so-called etiquette.

This is where you make friends,
this is where promoters

get to see you.

So the discussion was less
about these very talented

young players and aren't we
excited about seeing them

and isn't it interesting?

And it was more about who
the hell are they to not take

the path that you're
supposed to take?

[Caitlin Thompson] That actually
was the revolutionary

and amazing thing
about all of them,

is they completely
bucked the system.

And so I think for that reason,
it made their appearance

on the scene in the late 90s
when they're playing

and winning against
established tour professionals

that much more controversial,
that much more exciting,

because nobody had really
gotten a look at them.

[Narrator] Yet in the
conservative world of tennis,

everything about the Williams
sisters was unconventional.

Their father, Richard Williams,
a security guard attracted to

get-rich-quick schemes, was not
a tennis player himself,

yet a chance viewing
of a 1978 Grand Slam final

led him to look at the sport
as a potential

business opportunity.

And although his partner,
Oracene, already had

three children from a previous
marriage, Richard saw this

as a plan for the future.

He was watching TV
on a Sunday afternoon.

He just happened to see a tennis
tournament that was won

by a Romanian player
named Virginia Ruzici,

and she got a $40,000 check.

He said, "Wait a minute.

She only had to play a week?

She won this tournament,
she got $40,000."

Basketball was not an option.

There were great female
basketball players

who couldn't make a living.

Golf, there was a women's
professional golf league,

but they didn't
have the big purses.

So Richard was astute enough
to look at this sports landscape

and say, "Tennis is the sport."

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbet]
He started planning

before they were born.

He told Oracene that he was
going to have these champions,

he wrote a 75-page
business plan.

He even had some of Oracene's
older daughters playing tennis,

but it wasn't until
he had Venus and Serena.

It was like this plan
that he had for them

before they were born, before
she was even carrying them.

[Narrator] Initially raised
in Long Beach, California,

in 1983, when
Venus and Serena

were still toddlers,
Richard moved

the family to Compton,
just south of Los Angeles.

And this was also part
of the plan,

although the public courts

where he would train his
daughters were far removed

from the upper crust
country clubs

of the established
tennis world.

Compton was a rough neighborhood
in southern California.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbet]
It had been an affluent

white community,
then it became

an affluent black community,
and then there was crime.

And then with gangster rap,
with NWA, some of those groups,

they made the reputation that
everything's about gang culture,

gangster rap, and that's
the kind of reputation

it had when Venus
and Serena were young.

[Cecil Harris] Richard thought
that it would toughen up

Venus and Serena

if they lived in an area
where you basically

have to hold on to everything.

No one's going to give you
anything, and you have

to really fight
for everything you get.

And if you can emerge
from an area like Compton,

you'll be mentally tougher
than these other players

you're going to compete against.

So it was Richard's idea that
Compton would toughen them up.

[Narrator] And for six years,
Richard dedicated himself

to coaching his daughters on
the run down courts of Compton,

but knowing he could
only take them so far,

in 1990, he contacted
Florida-based tennis coach

Rick Macci and invited him to
California to assess Serena

and Venus's potential
and consider taking

them under his wing.

[Rick Macci] I'm checking them
out technically, arms, legs,

hair, beads,
flying off their head.

And right then and there,
I'm going, "What in God's name

am I doing in Compton,
California on a Saturday?"

They weren't any better,
any worse than stuff

I see all the time at my camp
for that age.

So then I said,
"Let's play competitive points."

The whole landscape changed.

When I said "game on,"
I never saw two little girls

try so hard in my life.

There was a rage.

There was a rage inside both
these girls I never saw.

That was just insane.

Right then and there
I went up to Richard.

After I saw this, I said,
"Richard, come here.

You got the next female
Michael Jordan on your hands."

He puts his arm around me
and he goes, "No, brother man.

I got the next two."

[Narrator] In the summer of
1991, the Williams family

bid farewell to
the streets of Compton

and headed for
the beatific coastal city

of Delray Beach, Florida,
to train with Rick Macci.

Having previously coached teen
sensation, Jennifer Capriati,

who had turned pro
at 13 years old and later

became world number one,
at his elite tennis

academy, Macci now turned his
attention to transforming

Serena and Venus
into champions.

[Macci]I was there for one
reason, for Venus and Serena.

I was on a mission.

It wasn't about Richard,
it wasn't about Rick Macci.

I knew where this
was going to go.

They both were
just such amazing competitors.

They expected to win.

Two of the mentally
strongest players ever.

And let's face it, that's what
separates great from good,

is the mental part.

But I saw that early
on or I'm telling you right now,

I would've never
took the chance.

[Narrator] And although Macci's
primary focus was on

older sister Venus who would
turn professional first,

Richard Williams saw even
greater raw potential

in his younger daughter.

[Macci]Serena was a little
prankster, messing around,

happy-go-lucky.

But he always told me
even at nine,

Serena was going to be better,
and I couldn't see it.

He just said,
"Wait til she matures."

Besides the speed,
the quickness.

You knew she was going to be big
and strong and fast.

Serena not only checked every
box, she added a few more

of her own, you know?

[Narrator] After three years
of intensive training, in 1994,

Venus turned professional and
entered her first competition,

immediately making an impact.

The following year, 14-year-old
Serena was ready to join her.

With Rick Macci turning down
the opportunity to train

the sisters exclusively,
they were now back

with their father, Richard,
and without the keen eye

of a professional coach.

But they could not have chosen
a better time to emerge

as women's tennis was going
through an evolution.

[Caitlin Thompson] In the late
90s, you really had the very end

of the Steffi Graf era.

When I was growing up, Steffi
Graf and her 22 Grand Slams,

her Golden Slam, winning
all four slams in a year

and the gold medal, was seen
as just an incredible feat.

By the late 90s, it was an
interesting transition moment.

As my friend, Mary Carillo,
called it, 'Big Babe Tennis'

was the prevalent style.

You had Lindsay Davenport,
you had Jennifer Capriati,

you had people who
could just hit massive

ground strokes off the ground.

And Venus and Serena,
because they had practiced

largely with each other for so
many years, and both of them

had an incredibly aggressive

ground-stroke game,
they fit in just right.

[Narrator] While Venus started
strongly, when Serena debuted

in the 1995 Quebec Bell
Challenge, she lost

in the qualifying rounds.

But the media was already
intrigued by the sisters

and their bombastic father.

Soon, Venus reached the final
of the 1997 US Open

in her first Grand Slam season,
while in the same year,

Serena, was making headlines
for her remarkable run

at the Ameritech Cup
in Chicago.

As they faced each other
in a Grand Slam

for the first time
in the 1998 Australian Open

and appeared together
in the pages of Vogue Magazine,

it was clear that
the Williams sisters

were becoming a phenomenon.

Venus steps on the scene,
her little sister

wants to come up
and be just like her.

Her little sister wants
to excel as quick as she is.

They're each other's biggest
cheerleaders, but they

could be each other's
biggest competitors.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
People were fascinated

with them in general,

particularly since
Richard Williams would come

to tournaments
with his little signs.

"Welcome to the Williams Show."

They're both great players,
yet it was treated

as though they were an entry,
Venus and Serena.

[Julie Cart] They were
the Williams sisters.

I said it, everyone wrote it.

They are very different people.

But that was our shorthand,
that was our laziness,

to refer to them that way.

[Narrator] Adding to their image
as "The Williams Sisters",

indivisible from each other
was their success

playing together as a team.

Where Serena failed
to make her mark

on the singles competitions
of 1998, in 1999,

she and Venus won
their first Grand Slam title

for Women's Doubles
at the French Open.

But this would also be
the year in which Serena

made a breakthrough of her own.

In September 1999, aged
only 17, she fought her way

to the final of the US Open.

And there, facing world
number one, Martina Hingis,

she won her historic
first Grand Slam title.

[Julie Cart] When a
young player reaches a final

of a major tournament

and then wins it, sometimes
you look at the draw

and say, boy,
were they ever lucky.

So-and-so pulled out and this
person was up all night.

No.

She mowed through the best
players at the time.

[Caitlin Thompson]
1999, Serena Williams

shows up at the US Open.

She plays Kim Clijsters,
Conchita Martinez, Monica Seles,

Lindsay Davenport,
and Martina Hingis.

That is a murder's row of women.

And tennis, you can't help but
play the people in front of you.

Not all the time
does the best player

in the draw win the tournament.

That said, when Serena Williams
won a tournament,

you could almost guarantee
that she was the best person

in the draw, and it started
real early in her first slam.

[crowd cheers]

[Announcer] Game, set and the
championship, Serena Williams.

The US Open is a unique beast.
It's very loud.

She was really embraced
by that group.

Of course, she's an American
playing in an American

tournament, but her ethos--
New Yorkers would like that.

She's a winner.

She's an I don't care,
I'm just going to go do

what I'm going to do, and she
just had an attitude.

At the time, that was a big deal
especially for a woman,

and especially
for a black woman.

[Narrator] To add to the
accolades, the Williams sisters

were also crowned champions
of the women's doubles

at the same tournament.

As Serena ended 1999 as world
number four, with Venus

one place above her,
it was becoming clear

that their powerful,
aggressive style might make

a seismic impact
on the sport itself.

Serena's US Open Win
was just the first

major step toward that.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
It was significant in that now

it is no longer talk.

They've won a title.

And they were so young that you
just knew more was coming.

[Cecil Harris]
Serena was a US Open champion,

Venus was a US Open finalist,

and people could sense
that tennis was changing.

[Rick Macci] They changed
the game with that style,

but more importantly,
they bought in.

They wanted to attack you,
they wanted to hurt you.

They wanted to hit it hard.

But the wild card,
the wildest of all the cards,

there's no fear.

They were bulletproof.

They weren't going to be afraid
to pull the trigger.

They had courage on courage.

So when the fans are
in the stands and when

it was time to do it,
they weren't afraid.

[Narrator] Off the court too,
Serena and Venus continued

to attract attention, stepping
onto the red carpet

at premiers, attending award
shows, and in September, 2000

appearing for the first time
in Sports Illustrated.

They enthusiastically
courted the media.

Yet on the
professional circuit,

they were very different,

withdrawn, focused,
and weary of the wider

tennis establishment.

The sisters were acutely
aware of how dissimilar

they were from their
fellow professionals.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
The fascinating thing

about the Williams sisters

and Richard in terms of
embracing the establishment

is they never wanted to.

They had each other
and that mentality that we are

who we are in spite
of what you think of us...

"what you think of me is none of
my business" kind of attitude,

is why they were
able to survive it.

Richard Williams basically told
them, "Just talk to each other."

And Richard came to that
conclusion because he saw

the way the other
players would act

in junior tennis.

A lot of the players
were spoiled basically.

A lot of these young players
had a false sense

of entitlement because
they come from money,

they come from means.

And Richard felt like
to protect Venus and Serena,

they just need to rely
on each other.

So don't go around the locker
room getting involved

with what the other
players are doing.

Talk to your sister,
practice with your sister.

They played doubles together.

They often would play
the same tournaments.

And that bond, I think,
strengthened both of them.

[Narrator] And they
needed the strength.

Their meteoric rise
may have been celebrated

outside the tennis world,
but within it,

they were still
not fully embraced.

Two black teenagers
in an elite,

predominantly white sport,

when Serena and Venus
first appeared

on the professional circuit,
they were questioned

about their vocal,
aggressive playing style,

and the beads
they wore in their hair.

And Venus, as the first
to emerge,

faced particular scrutiny.

[Cecil Harris] It was something
that Venus was questioned

about in sort of
an accusatory way.

"Why are you wearing your hair
like that in the first place?"

As if black women
somehow have to conform

to what other women are doing.

When they had the beads,
it was kind of old.

Most black women
weren't wearing beads.

That was something that
was fashionable in the 70s.

So it was odd for not
just white people, but even

black people looking at,
"Why are they

wearing these beads?"

But it was just something
they liked to do.

[Julie Cart]
They were different,

and it's understandable

because it is something
that's unusual, but it took

so long to get over that.

And no one wanted to say,
"Well, she's black."

That was not being discussed.

But I think
that was the subtext.

[Narrator] But the backlash
against the sisters

came to a head in early 2001

at the final
of a tournament

held in the politically
conservative city

of Indian Wells, California.

Indian Wells
is the ugliest incident

I've ever seen in tennis.

[Julie Cart]
Indian Wells. Wow.

This is a money-drenched
tournament.

It's in a beautiful setting.

They call it
the US Open of the west.

People who attend that
have a lot of dough.

They're not from Compton.

They may not like
people from Compton.

[Cecil Harris]
Indian Wells and Compton

are almost light years apart.

So even though the Williams
sisters were technically

at home in southern California,
Indian Wells was not home.

[Narrator] Both Serena and Venus
had progressed impressively

through the tournament
and were headed

for a semifinal showdown.

But serious allegations
of match fixing

against Richard Williams
were already spreading

before the game began,
fueled by Russian player,

Elena Dementieva.

These rumors were then
strengthened when Venus

withdrew from the match against
her sister through injury,

handing Serena
a walkover to the final.

It came from the players,
the gossips that they are,

"She's faking that because they
don't want to play each other."

They had played
each other so many times,

in consequential matches,
so I don't buy that.

[Narrator] But the accusations
had spread into public opinion.

On March 17th, 2001,
Serena Williams stepped out

onto the court at Indian Wells
to play for the title

against Belgian, Kim Clijsters,
and the indignant crowd

immediately made
their feelings known.

Here's the American, Serena,
from Southern California,

against the Belgian,
Kim Clijsters.

That entire crowd, predominantly
white, more than 99% white,

they booed her.

When Richard Williams and Venus
Williams took their seats

at courtside, they booed them.
[crowd booing]

[Announcer] And there's father
Richard coming down.

It's quite amazing.

Jo Jury alongside me,
Simon Reed.

There's Venus.

And the crowd,
an American crowd,

booing an American family.

And you have to say that it does
smack of a little bit of racism.

[Julie Cart] There's film of
Venus and Richard coming down

into the stadium.

They weren't without fans
and supporters, but it just

was so overwhelming.

It was just this culmination
of, we don't like them.

We're not sure why.

We're going to create a reason.

And it's the beads.

Okay, they're not wearing beads.

Well, they fix their matches.

It was always something
that they couldn't

put their finger on when it's
like, no, it's right out there.

You're just racist.

We have walkovers
in tennis because people

withdraw so often.

It's just a part of the game.

So I don't know why they've
thought, other than racism,

that it was okay to boo her
like that because her sister

withdrew from a tournament.

[Narrator] And as the match
began, the crowd's

hostility continued.

Every mistake she made,
every error, was cheered

by an American crowd.

It was unprecedented in tennis.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbet]
The vitriol to Serena

was also hurtful
to Kim Clijsters.

She seemed confused, her
opponent, as to what's going on.

"Why are they booing this
person? I'm Belgian."

They were both teenagers.

It was an ugly situation.

I think they both
handled it beautifully,

and they remained friends.

It was the crowd, the grownups
who were acting ridiculous.

[Narrator] And although Serena
would triumph over this

homegrown adversity
and ultimately win the match,

the ordeal made a significant
impact on the teenager.

[Cecil Harris] She was
gracious, she was strong.

She didn't let the crowd see how
much they had hurt her.

But Serena has since said,
on the drive away

from Indian Wells,
she was crying in the car.

It hurt her that much.

But she didn't let
the crowd see it.

[Narrator]
In the aftermath of the event,

both Serena and Venus
would boycott the tournament

for over a decade.

Yet beyond its impact
on the sisters,

the Indian Wells debacle
would prove a turning point,

a watershed moment
in which the tennis world

was forced to confront
its own innate prejudices.

From its very inception
in late 18th century Britain,

the sport had been
characterized

by its exclusivity,

a pastime for the privileged.

Tennis has had
so many different eras.

It was obviously evolved
as a lawn game

for rich elitists
in their English gardens,

and this is dating back
about a hundred years.

You could buy a set
and set up your own court

in your backyard and really just
have a sort of leisure game

between gin and tonics.

Tennis to me started getting
really interesting in the 20s.

This is when you actually
had your first couple

of female superstars.

This is Gussie Moran,
this is Suzanne Lenglen,

women who transcended the sport
and forced their way

in alongside your Renee Lacostes
and other legends.

Tennis became this, certainly
a little bit blue blood,

but a place for female success,
which if you look

at other sports,
was groundbreaking.

[Narrator]
Although it was pioneering

in its embrace
of women players,

this was still bound up
in privilege;

the female athletes wealthy
members of the same

social class as the men.

And as the game spread to
Europe and then to America,

it remained an elite country
club sport, with no access

for either the working classes
or for people of color.

This led African-Americans
to form their own

sports organization: The
American Tennis Association.

And by the 1920s, it began to
host its own tournaments.

Tennis was a deeply segregated
sport when the ATA was formed,

and that's one reason
it existed, because similar

to Negro League Baseball,
there were outstanding

black baseball players
who were not given a chance

to play Major League Baseball.

The same problem
existed in tennis.

And the ATA had some wonderful
players who unfortunately

never got a chance
to play major tennis.

Ora Washington was one.

She won eight ATA
singles championships

and combined with various
partners to win

12 doubles championships.

She could well have become
one of the all-time

great tennis players.

And maybe she was,
but she's not known as such.

She's been largely forgotten
by history because she didn't

get a chance to play.

[Narrator] And it was not until
the 1950s that a black player

was finally given
the opportunity to compete

in the major
tennis tournaments.

Althea Gibson, who had honed
her talents on the streets

of Harlem, became the leading
female player in the ATA,

dominating the field
and winning 10

straight singles titles.

But despite her towering
reputation, she was still

unable to compete in the United
States National Championships

solely because
of her skin color.

It would take the intervention
of a former world number one

to finally tackle
the racial divide.

[Cecil Harris] A prominent white
player named Alice Marble

heard about Althea, had
not yet met her, but the name

was going around tennis circles.

Here's this black American
woman who is very good

but is not being
given a chance to play.

Alice broke the ice by writing
a column in what was then

an influential publication,
American Lawn Tennis Magazine,

and she put the tennis
establishment to shame.

"How can we say tennis
is the sport for ladies

"and gentlemen if we're not
giving this young black woman

a chance to play?"

Football, baseball, basketball,
where all desegregated.

Boxing had black champions like
Joe Lewis and Jack Johnson.

So how could tennis call
itself the sport for ladies

and gentlemen if we're denying
Althea Gibson a chance

to prove what
she can do against the best

tennis players in the world?

[Narrator] The tennis world
was convinced by Marble's

stinging criticisms,
and Althea Gibson's

subsequent entrance
into the major

tennis tournaments finally
broke through the segregation.

She would become the first
black player to win Grand Slams

both at home and abroad,
and a role model

for future generations,
including Serena Williams.

She won the US Nationals
twice, 1957 and 1958.

Won Wimbledon twice,
1957 and 1958.

Won the French
Nationals in 1956.

And because Wimbledon
is the premier tournament,

when she won her
first Wimbledon title in 1957,

Queen Elizabeth presented her
with the Venus Rosewater Dish,

the golden plate
that the champion receives.

And when she came
back to New York,

she was honored
with a ticker-tape parade.

Althea got the kind of
celebration that astronauts

returning from the moon would
get, or the New York Yankees

winning the World Series

or the New York Giants
winning the Super Bowl.

This was for a Black American
woman who broke

the color barrier
in her sport and was the first

Black major champion.

[Narrator] Yet despite this
progressive leap forward,

Gibson's success
did not prove

to be a catalyst
for long-term change

in the tennis world.

Although Black stars would
break through in the following

three decades, including
the American, Arthur Ashe,

and Frenchman Yannick Noah,
by the 1990s,

just before the Williams
sisters arrived on the scene,

the sport remained
a predominantly white affair.

[Julie Cart] If you want
to look at that period

of time in the 90s,

one hand, you can
name the black players.

Look at Zina Garrison,
a Wimbledon finalist.

She could barely get
sponsorship, could not

scrape up anybody
who wants to pay her a dime,

and look how good she was.

When Zina Garrison reached
the Wimbledon final in 1990,

the first black woman
to reach a Wimbledon final

since Althea Gibson in 1958,

Zina was the only player
in the top 10

in women's tennis
who did not have

a clothing endorsement deal.

Zina ended up playing
against Martina Navratilova

in the 1990 final wearing
clothes that Martina gave her.

[Narrator] After so many
years of black players

being underrepresented

and underappreciated,
when the Williams sisters

arrived shortly afterwards,
they brought the sport

to a tipping point.

The Indian Wells debacle
was damning proof to many

that the deep-rooted prejudices
of the conservative

tennis world desperately needed
to adapt to the modern age.

And Serena and her sister,
Venus, would ultimately

force that change to occur.

[Caitlin Thompson]
The appearance of Venus

and Serena Williams
on the scene

with their braids, their
unapologetic style of play,

their family, it was
hard to see how anything

other than what happened
happened, as much

as it would pain me
to say that.

We had had phenomenally
successful players of color

preceding the appearance
of the Williams sisters,

but really, nobody
who took up as much space

as the Williams family.

And I think everything that made
them a little bit anathema

to the conservative power
structures in tennis,

the fact that they
were loud, the fact

that they were unapologetic,

the fact that they played loud,
flashy tennis and assumed

an amount of space, made them
incredible tennis players.

And so for me, it's been very
interesting to see not only

at the time the way
the tennis world reluctantly,

but then inevitably
made space

for Serena Williams
in particular.

[Narrator] And if the tennis
establishment proved reluctant

in accepting these rising
stars, the wider public

was only too happy
to embrace them.

Tennis viewership had been on
the decline since its heyday

in the 1970s, with characters
like John McEnroe

and Jimmy Connors
replaced by more disciplined

athletes like Pete Sampras
and Steffi Graf,

whose dispassionate,
clinical playing styles

offered little
on-court personality.

The Williams sisters
were a breath of fresh air.

And when they faced
each other in the final

of the 2001 US Open, audience
numbers went through the roof.

Tennis should thank its lucky
stars that those two came along.

Absolutely.

22 million people watching
the final between the sisters

at the US Open.

You got to see them play,
and wow, it's for real

and it's exciting.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
Not only did Venus and Serena

bring more eyes,

they brought non-tennis
fans to the game.

So you had people who didn't
care about tennis,

never watched, they were tuning
in to see these sisters.

It was unique.

They were young,
they were hip.

[Rick Macci] Saturday night,
prime time, US Open,

22 million people watching this.

It's one thing to have
one play in the finals.

But you're playing your sister
who lives in the same house

and you share the same bedroom,
it's a whole different dynamic.

And the eyeballs they
brought and the fascination

and the intrigue and the story.

[Announcer] Game, set and match.
Venus Williams.

- Two sets to love: 6-3, 6-4.
- And there it is.

[crowd cheers]

[Announcer] Venus Williams,
the US Open champion

over younger sister,
Serena Williams.

[Rick Macci] This is what
dreams are made of.

You cannot make this stuff up.

[Narrator] And while both
sisters were playing their part

in attracting record viewing
figures, Serena's tough,

high voltage playing style
and on-court persona,

were bringing drama
back to the sport.

[Julie cart] Tennis was
being left in the dust.

That whole sense of [mimicking]
fair play, congratulations...

it's not contemporary,
it's not interesting.

You want to see people bleed,
you want to see their struggles.

You know the backstory,
and I know that sounds

sort of artificial, but that's
what is interesting to people.

Serena screams when
she wins and she gets upset.

It's just her
understanding of the sport

as an entertainment medium.

[Narrator] Serena was now
firmly in the spotlight.

Between 1999 and 2001,
she had rocketed

up the rankings to cement
herself as a top 10 player.

And after years
of high expectations,

2002 heralded
a new era of dominance.

[Serena screams]

[Announcer] Game, set, match.

[Narrator] Winning eight of
the 13 tournaments she entered,

Serena would beat her
higher ranked sister

in three Grand Slam finals:
the French Open,

Wimbledon, and the US Open,
before defeating her again

in the Australian Open
in January 2003,

becoming the first player
since Steffi Graf to go

undefeated in Grand Slams
in a single season

and finishing the year
as world number one.

Soon, talk of the Williams
sisters came to an end.

[Caitlin Thompson]
2002 is really when you get

separation between
the two of them.

It's so hard not to lump them
together just because

they're both so excellent,
they're both

hitting number ones, they're
both getting to finals.

But for me, 2002 is really
when Serena goes solo.

It's not close and she's winning
slam after slam after slam,

so much that they had
a whole new term for her,

which is after winning
Wimbledon, the French Open,

the US Open,
and then the next year,

Australian Open, they called
it the 'Serena Slam'.

To me, the fact that she's
beating Jennifer Capriati

in 2002 in Miami, a fast, humid
court and beating her sister

in the French Open, and then
beating her sister

again at Wimbledon,
it cannot be stated.

This is so crazy an achievement
because of how diverse

the field and the surfaces
are at this time.

[crowd cheers]

She is firing
on all cylinders.

She's got the peroxide
blonde hair, she's got

the ponytail, she looks
amazing and she's playing

so amazingly and so far ahead
of everybody else that it

is hard to ever really
keep her in the same

conversation
as the Williams sisters.

She's now just Serena Williams,
or even just Serena.

[Narrator] And it wasn't
just her dominance

that was separating Serena

from both her sister
and her contemporaries.

As her confidence
as a player grew, so too

did her confidence to dress
in eye-catching outfits.

And both on and off court,
she began to experiment

with bold new styles
and further break away

from tennis traditions.

In the early 2000s, Serena
was sponsored by Puma.

They put her in the Cameroon
colors and she wore

a jumper at the French Open
with green shorts

and yellow trim
with the high socks.

It's the greatest look
that's ever been served.

Serena has never been afraid
to make a fashion statement

on court, that's one of the
things I admire about her.

She will come up with unique
outfits that nobody else

would even dare to wear.

[Narrator] But in a sport known
for etiquette and reserve,

one outfit in particular
drew heavy criticism.

The black faux leather catsuit,
which she debuted

at the US Open in 2002, clearly
didn't hinder her path

to victory in that competition.

But where some press reports
applauded her courage

and style, others used it
as an opportunity

to deride Serena herself.

[Cecil Harris] One fashion
critic from the Washington Post

called her catsuit trashy.

There were people likening her
to looking like a street walker.

It was unique for tennis,
it was what Serena

wanted to wear.

It was not trashy.

It was just different.

This happens a lot,
beyond Serena Williams.

When black women decide
to present themselves

in form fitting clothes,
tight clothes,

it's automatically,
"Oh, she's trying to be sexual."

"She's trying to show
off her body."

And at the end of the day,
she's just wearing

an athletic outfit
that she can move freely in.

Now, was there backlash?

Absolutely.

It's form fitting.

Now you see her muscles
and where she's toned,

you see her physique.

That can be intimidating
for a lot of people, honestly.

But I mean, if I looked
like that, I would be

in my skintight catsuit
as well, and I love it.

[Narrator] And Serena wasn't
content just to push boundaries

within the world of tennis.

Having enrolled at the Art
Institute of Fort Lauderdale,

Florida, to study fashion
back in 2000, her interest

in this industry was soon
to play a central role

in her off-court career.

And in April 2003,
she appeared in her first

solo Vogue shoot, confidently
celebrating her physique

within a fashion world
still obsessed

by a very different
beauty standard.

The fashion industry always has
been, always will be dominated

by size-zero models, but
what was unique was not only

was Serena more muscular,
but it was,

you're able to see women
as strong and feminine.

Serena's body is obviously
perfect for what she's doing,

but it is not the slender
white vision of female beauty,

and it's yet another norm
that she pushed through.

And instead of tiptoeing,
she just said, "Ta-da."

[Narrator] Her appearance in
Vogue came just at the point

that the cultural landscape
itself was going

through a transformation.

While Serena had distinguished
herself from Venus

in the public's consciousness
and was stepping out

on her own.

Destiny's Child singer,
Beyonce Knowles,

was also going solo
and quickly emerging

as one of the biggest
stars in the world.

Strong black women,
previously so overlooked

by the gatekeepers
of the mainstream media,

were suddenly
in the driving seat.

It's really cool to see this new
age of accepting black women

as the star of the show,
black women being spotlighted.

Having curvy bodies, full-bodied
women like Beyonce,

like Serena Williams,
who are authentic in themselves,

were always around,
but now we're starting to,

as the media, as the public,
starting to embrace that,

and there is some
liberation in that.

I think we have a long way to
go, but it's cool to see, okay,

I'm black, my family's black.

I see these types
of women all the time,

but now I'm seeing it
in mainstream media.

Now I'm seeing it
on magazine covers,

now I'm seeing it
in commercials.

[Narrator] In December 2003,
Serena signed

a $40 million deal with Nike,

at the time the largest
endorsement contract

ever offered
to a female athlete.

And this would propel her into
the spotlight even further.

Attending red carpet premiers,
high profile events,

and invited to New York's
prestigious Met Gala in 2004,

Serena was no longer

a sports star,
but had now become

an international celebrity.

And where the tennis community
had initially shunned her,

the entertainment world
welcomed her with open arms.

[Analis Bailey] The tennis
world, you have this

predominantly white sport,

and then you have this colorful
world of entertainment

and celebrity and culture.

So I think natural
she was embraced and accepted

in that diverse space
like a lot of people are,

like a lot
of black athletes are.

Serena felt more at home with
celebrity only because

celebrities loved Serena.

She is one of the few athletes
who have celebrity groupies.

Celebrities embraced Serena
because they were fangirling

on her and they
wanted to meet her.

So that was a place where,
on the tennis world,

she had a lot of adversaries,
in the world of entertainment,

they embraced her, loved her.

So she had become like her own
celebrity outside of sports,

and people knew
her name everywhere.

[Narrator] But just as she had
been elevated to the top tier

of popular culture, the tide
turned, and Serena was hit

by a number of personal
and professional crises.

In September 2003,
her oldest half-sister

and personal assistant,
Yetunde Price,

was shot and killed in Compton.

At the same time, her career
began to be plagued

by significant injuries.

In 2004, she won
only two minor titles.

And despite winning
the Australian Open in 2005,

afterwards her
form and her fitness

deteriorated once again.

While her career away from
the court seemed healthy,

with acting roles in popular
shows, Law and Order and ER,

her absence from
the professional tour

saw her ranking slip
ever downwards.

At the end of 2006,
she was ranked number 96

in the world, and many tennis
insiders felt she had become

too preoccupied with
her life outside of sport.

[Interviewer] Are we going to
see you on the big screen?

Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.

Very soon, very soon.

And how's the fashion
life going?

Very good.

I'm really excited
about everything.

[Cecil Harris] She was dabbling
in acting, fashion design.

She was pulling herself in many
different directions

and not focusing on tennis
as much as she should have.

Success came so quickly,
I think she believed,

"Okay, I've conquered
the tennis world.

What else can I do?"

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
Emotionally, she was struggling

to deal with her sister's death.

And it wasn't just her sister's
death, because her sister

also had two kids, and a lot
of people don't realize

Venus and Serena went to court
trying to win custody

of their niece and nephew.

So to be in your twenties
and trying to win custody

of two little kids, and so when
you have the emotional stuff

along with the injuries,
that was a tough time.

[Narrator] But Serena
was determined

not to lose her crown.

Her win at the 2007 Australian
Open Final provided her

with a lifeline.

And the following year's
victories at the Miami Masters

and a third US Open final
set her on course

for a dramatic comeback.

Come on!

[Narrator] And that
was to happen in 2009,

when she won in Australia

yet again before beating her
sister to claim

her third Wimbledon title.
[crowd gasps]

But rather than return
full-time to the WTA Tour,

Serena had selected
the tournaments in which

she would compete, careful
to avoid further injury.

It proved a hugely successful
strategy, and by the end

of 2009, she was world
number one yet again.

Even in being a little bit more
detached from the game,

she ended up being incredibly
impactful because what she did

was start cherry-picking
her season.

She wouldn't play all
the mandatory tournaments.

In fact, when she needed to play
a mandatory tournament

and it wasn't going to coincide
with her schedule

for whatever reason, she would
gladly pay the fine.

That actually ended up creating
a trend where athletes

created their own schedules,
had their own swings,

and we've seen it
basically ever since.

It's amazingly vindicating to
think about the amount of times

Serena was written off,
especially as she aged.

And I think for me, it proved
that this really

would only be over when
she wanted it to be.

And whenever she decided that
the game was hers

for the taking,
she made it happen.

[Narrator] And despite
still suffering

from intermittent injuries,

including a life-threatening
pulmonary embolism,

and drifting up and down
the rankings while in recovery,

from 2010,
Serena began to compete

at the top level once again.

Now approaching her thirties,
she nevertheless was able

to focus on those aspects
of her game that helped her

to dominate her opponents.

And the most powerful of these
attributes was her serve,

which she had been developing
since her youth.

[Rick Macci] Even before I got
involved, her throwing motion,

biomechanically, was correct.

It was natural.

Venus wasn't.

She was more disjointed.

But Serena, her natural motion
was like, whoa.

It was like a quarterback
just throwing

a tight spiral, the motion.

And I kept telling her,
the toss, it's like

you have an egg in your hand.

Put the egg on the shelf,
egg on the shelf.

Fast-forward, the best serve
ever in women's tennis.

Her attitude was always:
think big, go bigger,

expect to hit an ace.

It wasn't like, just get it in,
like it was in the 80s

and early 90s.

So the mindset was there.

But her serve, Serena's serve,
poetry in motion,

a knife through butter,
but there's an assassin

with a racket in her hand just
wanting to hit that ball

as hard as she could.

When it was break point
or when she needed it,

it's that Compton Street fight,
that she could go deep inside,

the bigger the moment,
that's what separates

great from good.

[grunts]

Bang! She would get that serve
in when she needed it.

[Narrator] And alongside
her serve, another aspect

of her game that Serena used
to diminish her opponents

was her ability
to volley at the net.

[Caitlin Thompson]
Serena has baseline shots

that are as good, if not better,

than anyone else who's ever
played the game,

but her net game is elite.

Again, not very many people,
especially women,

emphasize so much net play,
and it is easy to forget,

but important to remember
how many titles she won,

usually alongside her sister,
but also in mixed doubles.

She's an elite doubles player.

[Narrator] And where the media
devoted untold column inches

in praise of her power and her
physical dominance,

often less appreciated was
her on-court intelligence.

[Julie Cart] Her strength is her
brain, her mindset, and the fact

that she has
a very strong will.

You do not get to where
she is, and stay there,

that's the main thing, you don't
stay there unless you have

some just monumental
determination,

self-belief, resilience.

She just has a will.

[Caitlin Thompson] Every single
match Serena has ever contended,

she expects to win.

And for a large part of her
career, so did her opponents.

And you can't overstate how
tough it is to go out

against an opponent who's
already essentially

beaten you, broken your spirit,
made you not believe.

You have to beat her,
because she's certainly

not going to beat herself.

That's a big deal.

[Narrator] All of these
attributes would come

to the fore as Serena
strived to regain

her winning form in 2010.

After her years in the
wilderness, she was up against

a renewed field of competitors,
some of whom she was facing

for the first time.

Yet up until this point,
her injuries had caused her

more concern
than her opponents.

[Caitlin Thompson]
Serena had really few rivals.

At the beginning of her career,
her sister proved

to be a frequent
sparring partner.

She had some interesting matches
against Steffi Graf

or Martina Hingis.

But really, for her prime,
there was almost nobody

who could hold a candle to her.

[Julie Cart] You don't look back
at Serena's career and say,

oh, she played so-and-so
48 times, and it was 24-24.

It's not like that and it's not
like the attenuated rivalry

that Martina Navratilova
had with Chris Evert,

where they brought out
the best in each other.

I think that there were sharp,
pointed moments when people

played well against Serena,
kind of, figured her out,

or she may have had something
going on, and they won.

But I don't think there was
someone where she said,

"Ugh, man, this is going
to be a tough one."

[Narrator] But at the start
of her comeback trail in 2007,

she had faced an opponent who
repeatedly stood in her way.

The Belgian, Justine Henin,
had defeated her

in the quarterfinals
of three Grand Slams

during that season,
the French Open, Wimbledon,

and the US Open, and proved
a major obstacle

in Serena's goal
to get back to the top.

[Caitlin Thompson] At her peak,
she could take the fight

to Serena because she and Serena
had very different games.

Justine Henin is one of the few
people who was bold enough,

and she's not big, she's only
5'5, to stand inside

the baseline on a Serena
Williams serve just in

the effort to take it early
and try to dictate the point

before Serena
would get the chance.

So from a tennis perspective,
she's in my mind

the closest that Serena
had to a consistent rival.

[Narrator] In 2008, Henin
had briefly retired.

But in January 2010, with
Serena looking to return

to form and dominate the field,
she faced Henin once again

at the final
of the Australian Open.

It would prove a key match
in Serena's resurgence.

Justine Henin was coming back,
trying to decide

whether she was going to retire,
and she was at the time

the only real
competition for Serena,

consistent competition.

[crowd cheers]

To beat her and send her back
into retirement was like

Serena saying,
"No, I'm in charge now.

I'm here to stay."

So I think that was her sending
the message to the field,

that "I'm back for good now."

[Narrator] But as Serena moved
into the second chapter

of her career,

there was one other
rival on her radar.

And Russian player,
Maria Sharapova, was competing

with her both
on and off the court.

Having entered the professional
circuit just as Serena's form

had started to decline,
in 2004, Sharapova

had caused an upset
when as the 13th seed,

she defeated
the defending champion

at the Wimbledon final.

Although Serena had
been gracious in defeat,

the tennis world's sudden
embrace of Sharapova

after the game was a shock.

There were people in the sport
hoping someone else

would come along to take over
from the Williams sisters.

And Maria didn't exactly take
over, she just beat Serena

in a big upset in 2004,
and people ran with that.

"Oh, Maria is the next
big thing now."

Nike gave Maria Sharapova a more
lucrative endorsement deal

than the one Serena had
because Maria won that match.

And I'm sure that got to Serena
as well, because Serena

had done so much more.

Being 17 and upsetting Serena,
that puts Sharapova on the map.

She's the new darling.

And even though she's Russian,
she was a darling in the US too.

All of the money just started
pouring into Sharapova.

She'd won one tournament against
an injured Serena Williams,

but oh, she's better.

And she's blonde and she's tall.

So it was this weird transition
for Serena during that time.

[Narrator] And during Serena's
years of struggle and absence,

Sharapova had not only proven
one of the best players

in the game, but had
eclipsed her as the face

of women's tennis.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
To have a good rivalry,

the other person
has to be at the top too.

And Sharapova was at the top,
she was dominating

when Serena was out.

And then, so when Serena came
back strong, this is the person

she had to beat.

[Caitlin Thompson] A lot of the
years that both Serena Williams

and Maria Sharapova
were active, Maria Sharapova,

despite having a whisper
of Serena Williams

tennis resume,
especially head-to-head,

bested Serena Williams
in money endorsements.

Canon, Porsche, Evian,
the list goes on and on.

She was really out-earning
Serena by such a large margin

that I think it enraged
Serena and made her play

even better tennis,
because an angry

Serena Williams
tends to be a focused

Serena Williams, and that's
not who you want to see

on the other side of the court.

[Narrator] And in 2012,
on the back of winning

her fifth Wimbledon
singles title,

a resurgent Serena faced off

against Maria Sharapova
once again.

The occasion was
momentous, the final

of the London Olympics,
with the victor set to receive

a coveted gold medal.

And Serena made sure that
there was only one winner.

Serena's most dominant
performance came against Maria

in the 2012 gold medal match
in the Olympics.

It was held at Wimbledon
that year on center court.

And Serena smoked
Maria 6-0, 6-1.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
It was just stunning,

that match.

Serena was better than her
in every aspect of the game.

I don't think she's ever played
cleaner, more decisive tennis.

[crowd cheers]

Serena was just teeing
off on her second serve.

It was like batting practice.

[screams]

[Cecil Harris] And there was
something about the image

of Serena
standing highest

on the podium
as the gold medal winner

and Maria below her
as a silver medalist,

and the look on Serena's face.

Like, the whole world sees this,
and this is the pecking order

as it should be.
[laughs]

[Narrator] The following year,
2013, Serena finally

made her way back
to the very top.

Becoming the oldest
female world number one

at nearly 32 years old, this
second chapter of her career

would prove even more
successful than the first.

Yet Serena had
also been looking

for new impetus
and inspiration,

and this drew her away
from her father Richard

toward French coach,
Patrick Mouratoglou.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
2013, that's the year

I think was Serena's best year.

And it was also her first full
year after teaming up

with the coach,
Patrick Mouratoglou.

Because in 2012 at Wimbledon,
that's the first time

he coached her.

That was also the last time
Richard Williams

was in the player's box
at a Grand Slam, 2012.

He never showed up
again in the player's box.

And it was almost
like that transition from

Serena's now her own person.

She became a lot more strategic
in how she approached

the matches and about
chasing records.

Before, I don't think she cared.

[Narrator] And those records
were soon within her sights.

Serena entered the 2013 season
with 16 major singles titles

to her name,
two behind Chris Evert

and Martina Navratilova,
and four behind Steffi Graf,

the record holder in
the open era with 22 titles.

Back on form and once again
dominating the field,

Serena won the US and French
Opens, and then in 2014

completed a record-equaling
third US Open

win-in-a-row to draw level
with fellow Americans Evert

and Navratilova.

And with this victory,
she also earned the highest

single paycheck in the history
of tennis for winning

the US series of titles
within a single calendar year.

Where once Serena had been
viewed with skepticism

by the American
tennis establishment,

now she was its greatest asset.

For what Serena was being
rewarded with in 2014,

I think that was a pivotal
moment in shifting the tide.

Serena and her sister carried
the banner for American tennis,

and they did it for decades.

Because, still, no American man
has won a major tennis title

since Andy Roddick in 2003.

That means an entire generation
of tennis fans has not seen

any American man hold up
a major tennis trophy.

But they've seen Serena
do it many times.

The Williams sisters
really didn't change.

America changed.

After a while, American
tennis fans said,

"We don't have any reason
to dislike them.

Why don't we root for Serena?"

Now, we were hearing Serena
mentioned in the conversation

about the GOATs of sports,
the greatest of all time:

Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan,
Pele, Wayne Gretzky, Tom Brady.

Serena's name was being
included, and it was

the first time that
a great female athlete

was getting that
kind of respect.

[Narrator] And while Serena
was commanding that respect

and breaking records in
the tennis world, her schedule

was not limited to sport.

Two days after
winning the US Open,

she took to the stage

at another New York tradition,
New York Fashion Week,

debuting her Serena Williams
runway collection

in front of
a star-studded crowd.

Where critics had once doubted
that she could juggle

her on- and off-court
activities,

now Serena was proving

that she could excel at both.

[Analis Bailey] 2014, you have
this runway collection

by Serena Williams.

Lots of bold colors,
lots of leopard prints

and blazers and leather.

It was fun, it was different,
it was unique.

This era, and it's still going
on today, of celebrity athletes

building their brand
is something that Serena

kind of fell into so well.

[Narrator] And having ended
2014 on a high, in 2015,

Serena's winning streak
continued, with victories

at both the Australian Open
and the French Open.

In July, she
traveled to Wimbledon.

Here, the tennis world
was buzzing once again

as the prospect of a victory
in the singles competition

would see her complete
a second historic Serena Slam.

It is a huge incentive for me.

I did it before in Australia,
which was pretty cool,

so I've held all four in a row.

So I keep thinking about that.

"Serena, if it doesn't happen,
you've already done it,

so don't be
disappointed in yourself."

But at the same time,
I'm here to win Wimbledon,

I'm not here
to win the Serena Slam.

I'm not here to focus
on winning the Grand Slam.

I'm just here to win Wimbledon
or do the best I can

at Wimbledon and see
what happens after that.

That's all I can do.

[Narrator] And Serena's
best proved enough

to secure her a victory
in the final.

With this win,
she not only achieved

her second Serena Slam,

but she also became the oldest
female in the open era

to win a major singles title.

And she was now only one behind
Steffi Graf's record

of 22 Grand Slams.

[Cecil Harris]
The comeback was complete.

She had lost her way for a few
years, she was determined

to get it back.

And she got her groove back.

[Rick Macci] It just shows
how she loves to play.

She loves to kick butt
and take names.

This is a competitor.

It wasn't about the money.

I mean, she had all the money.

She had all
the fame and fortune.

It was about:
she loved to compete.

To me, this is like
legacy building stuff.

All rivals have pretty much
fallen out of contention.

She's winning as much as she
can, as much as she wants to.

You start looking at
the Steffi Graf record.

Oh, wow, Steffi Graf was so
dominant, she got 22 slams,

but nobody will ever get that.

And then all of a sudden in the
mid-teens, it just becomes

another goal or record that
Serena can get in her sights.

And you start thinking, oh,
she's going to end up

with more than
Steffi Graf, isn't she?

[Narrator] Yet there would
be obstacles in her path.

A new generation of players
were emerging who would offer

fresh challenges.

And in 2016, Serena was
defeated in the finals of both

the Australian Open and the
French Open, the first time

she had suffered
back-to-back losses

in Grand Slam finals.

Once again, this brought
the drama to Wimbledon

in July, 2016, where she
was reigning champion

and the number one seed.

Here she progressed to
the final where she faced

Angelique Kerber, a German
player very much in form.

[Merlisa Lawrence Corbett]
She was playing Kerber

who had just beat her

at the Australian Open,
and Kerber was probably

one of her better
competitors at the time.

And Serena, sometimes when she's
trying to reach a milestone,

she gets tight and she
would get nervous in knowing

time is running out.

That was a great match.

Kerber did not cower.

Serena had to beat her.

[both grunting]

[Announcer] Game, set, match.
Serena Williams.

14 years after that
first victory here,

Grand Slam number 22.

Irresistible, majestic.

And the judgment of history
will surely be that she was

in a class of her own.

I think it was significant
because it's like now

you're at 22,
that's off my back.

I am trying to tie Graf.

And it's like, now I'm
in that GOAT discussion.

And they would put Margaret
Court up there, but everybody

knew Graf was really the target.

So it's like
now I can best Graf.

That was a big deal.

[Narrator] Having equaled
graph's open era record,

some tennis insiders
did start to raise

the 24 Grand Slam wins
of Australian champion

Margaret Court, who had
dominated the sport

in the 1960s.

Yet Court had played
before the open era,

when tennis tournaments
were amateur-only events.

And many of her wins were at
the Australian Open itself,

which failed to attract
the world's top players

as it was so expensive
to travel to.

Yet ironically, it was at
the Australian Open in 2017

that Serena finally
passed Steffi Graf's

Grand Slam record.

The final itself was historic.

When both of the Williams
sisters stepped

onto center court at the
Rod Laver Arena to do battle,

it was their first meeting
at a Grand Slam final

since 2009, and their first
in Australia since 2003.

Venus, now 36, was
the oldest woman finalist

at the Australian Open ever,
and the contest

took their story full circle.

20 years after they had first
emerged, the Williams sisters

were still competing at the top
level of their sport.

Serena's eventual victory
saw her crowned

world number one yet again.

And unbeknownst to
the spectators, she had

achieved this win while
eight weeks pregnant.

The significance of passing
Graf, it's like

now there's no question.

The whole point
of Margaret Court

didn't become a thing
until after Serena passed Graf.

I'm like, nobody really thinks
that she's the greatest.

I think that was just this
barrier that people put in place

to put another hurdle over
Serena, but Graf was really

the standard to beat.

And I think that winning that,
I felt like Serena, not only

was she pregnant, but felt like,
hey, I can leave the game now.

I got 23.
I got 23, that's the one.

Not that she didn't want to get
Margaret Court, but I think

that 23, that's
the one she wanted.

It was about passing Graf.

[Narrator] In April 2017,
Serena publicly announced

her pregnancy
with her partner,

the entrepreneur,
Alexis Ohanian.

Stepping back from
the limelight and resting

at her home in
West Palm Beach, Florida,

for the rest of the year

she disappeared from
the professional circuit.

Following a difficult labor
that saw Serena suffer

another life-threatening
pulmonary embolism,

on September 1st,
the couple's daughter,

Alexis Olympia, was born.

And despite being hospitalized
for six weeks after the birth,

by the end of the year,
Serena was back

in training once again.

And in 2018, she returned
to competitive tennis.

[Julie Cart]
You can't pin Serena down.

There's no narrative that
stays static with her.

So...African American,
oh, how different.

She plays differently,
she's really tough and strong.

Look what she's wearing.

And now she's a mom, she's
married, she has a little kid

and she almost
died during childbirth.

It's yet another part of her
story, and she's let people in

under her own terms, and she has
a kind of integrity and I think

it's really, really compelling.

[Analis Bailey] Again, if you
see her, you can be her

and it's like, yeah,

I can be a mother
and I can have a career.

I can be a mother and I could
still be a role model.

I can be a mother and I can
still excel and be the best

at whatever I'm doing
in my career or otherwise.

Her becoming a mother,
her having her daughter

just made her that
much more relatable,

that much more inspirational.

[Narrator] Serena was back
in the spotlight

with motherhood boosting
her profile even further.

In May 2018, she
and her husband, Alexis,

were prominent guests at her
friend Meghan Markle's wedding

to Prince Harry.

And the following year, she was
a co-host at the Met Gala,

the fashion world's most
prestigious annual event.

And while the celebrity world
enthusiastically embraced

her return, the tennis world
was even keener to see her

back in the draw.

And while she withdrew from the
2018 French Open due to injury,

in July, she made
her highly anticipated

return to Wimbledon.

Only 10 months after she had
given birth, in a remarkable

series of matches, Serena had
soon made her way to the final.

When Serena came back, I think
her being away from the game

made people realize
how much they missed her.

To me, it was like
foreshadowing what that game

would be like without her.

People were starting to
appreciate how much excitement

having her in the draw, how much
people wanted to see her play,

that her game was unique.

It wasn't just about power, that
she brought something different

to the game.

It was like a buzz
around the place when Serena's

in the field.

[Narrator] Yet Serena was unable
to claim victory in the final

against old sparring partner,
Angelique Kerber.

And at the 2018 US Open,
she was also the runner up.

The field had grown since
her last Grand Slam wins

and new stars were rising
who were presenting

fresh challenges.

Across the next four years,
she would reach two more

major finals, but another Grand
Slam victory proved elusive.

She may have been the greatest
player of the modern era,

but now her remarkable reign
had come to a natural end.

[Cecil Harris] By coming
back now as a mother

trying to win a major title

and tie a coveted record,
Margaret Court's 24

major titles, Serena
has 23, and she gamely went

out there to try
to achieve that.

Made two US Open finals,
two Wimbledon finals.

Unfortunately, she did not win
them, but in a strange way,

she became more and more popular
as she tried to do that

because it would've
been so easy for her

to retire after
the 2017 Australian Open.

And rather than say, oh,
Serena failed because she lost

those four finals,
Serena made those four finals.

[Caitlin Thompson] To be clear,
after she had Olympia,

her daughter, she made plenty
of Grand Slam finals.

She had great tournaments,
she was able to compete.

She wasn't quite able to get
over the hump, and I think

part of this is probably
the external pressure,

but in the end it doesn't
matter so much because

winning even more tennis
matches or even more titles

wouldn't have changed the amount
of greatness we associated

with her, the amount
of change

both within the game, but also
societally she has left us with.

And I think the fact that we got
to see her really struggle

and ultimately conquer her
vulnerability, I think

the fact that we got to see her
as a working parent,

just this idea that she brought
herself to the moment

and therefore changed the
moment, is the greatest

possible impact that
she could have had.

[Narrator] And on September 2nd,
2022, at the US Open,

Serena Williams played her
final competitive match and bid

an emotional farewell
to a sport that she had

dominated for two decades.

Although her career
as a fashion entrepreneur

and celebrity would endure,

her departure would
bring to an end perhaps

the most astonishing
tennis journey of all time,

and leave the game without
its most famous face.

Yet her impact on the sport
would prove lasting.

The greatest female player of
all time began as an outsider,

and through her success,
she opened the doors

for new generations
to follow her.

Most of the international
tennis associations

for different countries have
tried to reach into communities

where tennis isn't played.

You go into that
community, and you say,

"Hey kids, let's
be a tennis player,"

they look around at the sport
and they don't see anyone

who looks like them.

So that's the value
of diversity, that's the value

of having someone like Serena.

"“I see her now."

"I see myself."

"I am reflected."

So therefore,
"Okay, I can do that"”.

It's immeasurable,
and that is a legacy.

And these are big overblown
things... it's true.

It's not even a conversation.

When she announced her
retirement in Toronto,

there were seven
black women in the main draw,

and that was not news.

It's just now a constant
on the tour.

You see that many in the main
draw, more black women

in the main draw
of the US Open than

in the Major League
Baseball World Series.

[Cecil Harris] Serena did more
to change women's tennis

than anyone else,

and the young players
who are emerging today

are part of that legacy,
because many of them

will tell you they're
only playing tennis

because they saw
Serena Williams.

Coco Gauff has said, "It was
easy for me to pursue

"a tennis career, to tell my
parents I want to be

"a tennis player because
the number one player

in the world looked like me."

In the case of Naomi Osaka,
she was given a class assignment

to write about the person
you admired most,

and she wrote about Serena.

And there's Taylor Townsend and
Sloan Stevens and Madison Keys,

and Alicia Parks,
who won her first

professional title in 2023.

Alicia Parks was actually
a body double for Serena

in a Gatorade commercial.

She's that iconic, that a
generation later we're seeing

champions who wouldn't be in
tennis, who would not have

tennis on their radar,
if not for Serena.

♪