Serena Williams: WTA Player Of The Year

Serena Williams: WTA Player Of The Year

  • Posted: Dec 09, 2015

From winning three of the four Grand Slams to holding No.1 from start to finish and an historic lead at that top ranking for six weeks in the summer, it comes as no surprise that Serena Williams has been voted WTA Player Of The Year, her fourth straight and seventh overall time receiving the honor.

Williams won her 19th, 20th and 21st majors at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, and coupled with her 2014 US Open title she completed a Non-Calendar Year Grand Slam, her second self-stylized Serena Slam. Her first ran from 2002 Roland Garros to the 2003 Australian Open.

Her dominance of the tour was so great that she made WTA Rankings history in the summer, too. For six weeks she actually had over twice as many ranking points as the No.2, something that had never happened before – Maria Sharapova was that No.2 for three weeks, Simona Halep the other three.

But the Grand Slams and historic ranking points lead are just the tip of the iceberg on the World No.1’s season. Her overall record was a sensational 53-3 – she won two more big WTA titles at Miami (a Premier Mandatory) and Cincinnati (a Premier 5), the only losses coming in the Madrid semifinals (Petra Kvitova), the Toronto semifinals (Belinda Bencic) and the US Open semifinals (Roberta Vinci).

Williams also pocketed $10,582,642 in 2015, second only to her own $12,385,572 from 2013.

“One of the factors for my results is just me being free and really enjoying the game, just really enjoying every time I’m out there,” Williams said after winning Wimbledon. “Not that I didn’t enjoy it before, but these last eight Grand Slams have come after I got really sick, and I have a different outlook on life now. Even though I’m super intense on the tennis court all the time, I have more fun now.”

And when asked during the summer about her personal highlights, Williams didn’t just point to her on-court wins – she also pointed to her emotional return to a massive tournament she once dominated.

“I think Indian Wells was pretty amazing,” she said, referring to her comeback to the BNP Paribas Open for the first time in 14 years and reaching the semifinals before withdrawing due to a knee injury.

“And I think Serena Slam 2.0 – winning Wimbledon – was pretty awesome, too.”

Williams has now won WTA Player Of The Year seven times in her career – 2002, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. She’s now tied with Martina Navratilova (seven) and trails only Steffi Graf (eight).

Though she had to wrap her season up after the US Open, Williams heads into the 2016 season as a clear favorite to keep piling on the majors – she’s just one away from tying Graf’s Open Era record.


This award was voted for by media and fans. Williams won the media vote with 79% (Garbiñe Muguruza next with 12%); Agnieszka Radwanska won the fan vote with 52% (Williams next with 37%).

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