Serena Williams likes to make one thing clear: She is never satisfied, no matter how many matches and tournaments she wins.
Driven as ever, Williams has won plenty this year. She went 78-4 with 11 titles, including at the French Open and U.S. Open, raising her Grand Slam championship total to 17. She compiled a 34-match winning streak. She earned more than $12 million in prize money, a record for women’s tennis. In February, she became the oldest No. 1 in Women’s Tennis Association rankings history and never left that perch.
Thanks to all of that, Williams was honored Wednesday as The Associated Press’ 2013 Female Athlete of the Year. It’s the third AP award for Williams, following 2002 and 2009. Only two women have been chosen more often as AP Athlete of the Year since the annual awards were first handed out in 1931.
“Whenever I lose, I get more determined, and it gives me something more to work toward,” Williams told the AP in an interview shortly before the start of the U.S. Open in August 2013. “I don’t get complacent, and I realize I need to work harder and I need to do better and I want to do better — or I wouldn’t keep playing this game.”
The vote by news organizations was about as lopsided as many of Williams’ matches this season. She received 55 of 96 votes, while Brittney Griner, a two-time AP Player of the Year in college basketball and the No. 1 pick in April’s WNBA draft, finished second with 14. Swimmer Missy Franklin was next with 10.
AP announced Thursday that the Male Athlete of the Year recipient is Miami Heat basketball player LeBron James.
Williams, who grew up in Compton, Calif., and turned 32 in September, produced the finest women’s tennis season in years. According to the WTA:
— her .951 winning percentage is the best since Steffi Graf’s .977 in 1989;
— her 11 titles are the most since Martina Hingis’ 12 in 1997;
— her winning streak was the longest since her sister, Venus, had a 35-match run in 2000.
“She just continues to be an inspiration to American tennis,” said Gordon Smith, the executive director of the U.S. Tennis Association, which runs the U.S. Open. “Her year this year? Unforgettable.”
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