Serena Williams and Venus Williams, the phenomenal professional tennis players who brought a new allegiance to the sport, made ESPN’s greatest female athletes of all time list.
As ESPN bring forth a list of one-name female powerhouses in sports, the sports channel highlights the passage of Title IX instituted in 1972, a law according to ESPN, “whose ripple effects extend far beyond the U.S., created a women’s sports culture awash in opportunity.”
Women’s sports experts and journalists were involved in the voting process while the tabulation was done by an independent, outside agency.
The top 40 female contributing athletes of the past 40 years has been and will continue to be unveiled each weekday from April 30 to June 22.
Venus landed at no. 21:
“There is a YouTube video of Venus Williams as a little girl in cornrows and a white polo shirt, giddily talking about her life goals. “I’d like to win Wimbledon, as many times as anyone else could win it,” she says. “More than any woman, man or junior did.”
Williams, now 31, has five Wimbledon trophies to her credit, still four shy of Martina Navratilova’s record nine. But even if she retires tomorrow, Williams has left her indelible mark on tennis.”
Serena landed at 10:
“She entered the 2007 Australian Open out of shape, ranked 81st in the world, and two years removed from her last tournament title. But Serena Williams didn’t bother herself with such trivial details.
Instead, the unseeded but undeterred Williams proceeded to produce one of the most convincing displays in tennis history, gaining momentum and shedding weight with each round. Her extraordinary run culminated in the demolition of top-seeded Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-2, in the final, underscoring for the sports world that Williams was still the best women’s player on the planet.”
Congrats to all the women, namely Serena and Venus!
Venus video:
Serena video:
