Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 14, 2021 Serena Williams of the U.S. celebrates winning her fourth round match against Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka REUTERS/Loren Elliott
Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, February 14, 2021 Serena Williams of the U.S. celebrates winning her fourth round match against Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka REUTERS/Loren Elliott
The 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams turned 40 years old yesterday. Williams, who turned pro back in October 1995, has been the face of women’s tennis over the last 26 years and has established herself as one of the greatest players of all time.
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In honor of her 40th birthday, MTV News posted an old interview of Williams taken in early 2002. Back then, the then 20-year-old American had just one Grand Slam title under her belt. However, the interview showed how ambitious and driven Williams had always been.
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Serena Williams: Throwback interview
Sporting gold hair and dressed in a turtleneck, Williams mentioned her ambition to win a couple of Slam titles, particularly the Wimbledon Championships that year (2002). In addition, she also talked about her dream of finishing the season as the number one ranked player in the world.
“My future plans are, I really wanna try to win Wimbledon this year. I wanna win, definitely win a couple of Grand slam this year. There’s three left and if could take two, that’d be great. I would love to end the year No.1, but we’ll see,” said Williams.
Today is @SerenaWilliams's 40th birthday! In honor of her big day, we're throwing it back to 2002 when she spoke with us about her dream of winning @Wimbledon — which she'd go on to do 7 times — and how this was just the start to her story ❤️ pic.twitter.com/gYdQaqlakv
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) September 26, 2021
Interestingly, Williams’ words proved prescient. In 2002, the American clinched three consecutive Grand Slam titles, the French Open, the Wimbledon Championships, and the US Open, and became only the third player in tennis history to win the ‘Surface Slam’.
Owing to her unprecedented success, Williams finished the 2002 season as the World No.1, which marked the first of the five seasons she ended as the number one ranked player during her glittering career.
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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 17: Serena Williams of the United States plays a shot in her first round match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland on day two of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 17, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
“This is just the beginning of an unbelievable story of Serena Williams,” said Williams in the interview, sounding incredibly joyful as she beamed a smile into the camera.
And that’s what the world witnessed. Over the next two decades, Williams has completely enthralled the world with her indefatigable fighting spirit and her pursuit of greatness and is still going strong.
