No player has shaped the US Open in the modern era as completely as Serena Williams. Across 23 years of competition at Flushing Meadows, she won six singles titles — tied with Chris Evert for the Open Era record — reached ten finals, accumulated 95 main-draw match wins, and produced a sustained body of work on the hard courts of Arthur Ashe Stadium that has no parallel in women’s tennis.
But the statistics, formidable as they are, capture only part of what makes Serena’s relationship with the US Open distinctive. Her career began here. The first sister Grand Slam final happened here. Her first major was won here at age 17. Her two-decade pursuit of Margaret Court’s all-time record played out here. And her farewell to professional tennis happened here, on Arthur Ashe Stadium, in front of the audience that had been with her from the start. Here is the complete story of Serena Williams at the US Open.
The First Title at 17: 1999
Serena Williams’s US Open story began on 11 September 1999, when the 17-year-old defeated world number one Martina Hingis 6-3, 7-6 in the final to win her first Grand Slam singles title. Williams was 17 years and 350 days old — among the youngest women’s champions in Open Era history.
She was seeded seventh entering the tournament and was widely regarded as the more talented but less polished of the two Williams sisters. Older sister Venus Williams was the family’s first to win an Olympic medal, the first to win a major doubles title, and the family’s projected first major singles champion. Instead, Serena got there first.
The 1999 victory was historic on multiple levels. Williams became the first African American woman in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title, and the first Black woman to win the US Open since Althea Gibson in 1958 — a gap of 41 years. The cultural significance was immediate and enormous. Williams’s victory positioned her, alongside her sister Venus, as one of the most consequential figures in the history of American sport.
The match itself was tactically remarkable for a player so young. Williams faced Hingis — the master strategist of the era — and overpowered her with depth, pace, and the relentless aggression that would become her career signature. The Swiss Miss, who had ruled women’s tennis for two years, lost a second consecutive major final after her dramatic Roland Garros defeat to Steffi Graf earlier in the year. It was, in retrospect, the moment Hingis’s dominance ended and the Williams era began.
The First Sister Slam Final: 2001
In 2001, Serena reached her second US Open final — and the first Grand Slam final ever contested between two sisters. Older sister Venus, the defending champion, defeated her 6-2, 6-4 in a prime-time Saturday night final on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The match itself was tense and somewhat muted, with the unprecedented family dynamic suppressing the typical New York crowd reactions. Serena hit hard but produced 36 unforced errors to Venus’s 18. Venus controlled both sets from the baseline and won her second consecutive US Open title in 1 hour 9 minutes.
The match’s significance ran far beyond the result. It permanently changed how women’s tennis was scheduled, with prime-time Saturday finals at the US Open becoming a fixture. And it established a sister rivalry that would continue, in various forms, for the next 17 years across all four Grand Slams.
The Serena Slam Begins: 2002
Serena returned to the US Open final in 2002 and defeated Venus 6-4, 6-3 — the first time the younger sister had beaten the older in a Grand Slam final, and the third leg of what would become the first “Serena Slam” (holding all four major titles simultaneously, though not in a calendar year).
By the end of 2002, Serena had won three consecutive Grand Slams — Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open. She would complete the non-calendar Slam at the 2003 Australian Open. The four-tournament dominance established her as the world number one and confirmed her as the most powerful female tennis player of her generation.
The Mid-Career Title: 2008
Six years passed between Serena’s second and third US Open titles. In the interim, she suffered a series of injuries, dealt with the murder of her sister Yetunde in 2003, and contested but lost several Grand Slam finals.
In 2008, she returned to Flushing Meadows seeded fourth and defeated Jelena Janković 6-4, 7-5 in the final to claim her third US Open title. Williams was 26 years old, and the title — her ninth Grand Slam — was widely seen as evidence that she had moved beyond her injury-affected mid-career period and was returning to the dominant form of her early 20s.
The 2008 title also coincided with a rebirth of the Williams sisters as a doubles partnership. Serena and Venus would win Olympic gold in Beijing weeks earlier and continue their doubles dominance through 2009 and beyond.
The Dominant Run: 2012, 2013, 2014
Between 2012 and 2014, Serena won three consecutive US Open titles — the most sustained period of dominance at Flushing Meadows of her career.
- 2012: Defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in a three-set final — Serena’s 15th Grand Slam title.
- 2013: Defeated Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-1 in another three-set final — Serena’s 17th Grand Slam.
- 2014: Defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-3 — Serena’s 18th Grand Slam, equalling Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert at that mark.
The 2014 title made Serena, then 32, the oldest US Open women’s champion in the Open Era — a record she would later break herself. It also tied her with Chris Evert at six US Open singles titles, sharing the Open Era women’s record that she now holds outright at six.
Across this three-year stretch, Williams’s US Open game reached its peak. Her serve — already the most powerful in women’s tennis history — was at its most reliable. Her returns were exceptional, her movement on Arthur Ashe’s hard courts was efficient, and her capacity to elevate her game in tight moments was unmatched.
The Calendar Slam Heartbreak: 2015
The 2015 US Open women’s singles tournament is one of the most emotional moments in Serena Williams’s career — and one of the most consequential disappointments. Williams had won the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon earlier in 2015 and arrived at Flushing Meadows pursuing the first calendar-year Grand Slam in women’s singles since Steffi Graf in 1988.
The pressure was extraordinary. The expectation, both internal and external, was that Williams would complete the Slam against a field she had been dominating for years. She reached the semifinals comfortably, defeating Venus Williams in the quarter-finals in a three-set match that itself attracted massive attention.
In the semi-final, she met Roberta Vinci — an Italian baseliner ranked 43rd in the world, attempting to qualify for her first Grand Slam final at age 32. Vinci won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in one of the most stunning upsets in tennis history. Williams’s calendar Slam attempt ended in a semifinal she had been expected to win in straight sets. Vinci, who had never beaten a top-15 player at a Grand Slam in her career, advanced to the final and would lose to fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta.
The Vinci match is, in retrospect, the single most consequential loss of Williams’s career. It denied her the calendar Slam — a feat that would have placed her among the rarest achievements in tennis — and it began a stretch during which her command of the Grand Slam game became less absolute.
The Return From Motherhood: 2018 and 2019
After winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant — a feat that itself defied medical convention — Williams stepped away from tennis to give birth to her daughter, Olympia, in September 2017. She returned in 2018, facing post-pregnancy complications that included a life-threatening pulmonary embolism.
At the 2018 US Open, six weeks after Williams’s return to Grand Slam tennis at Wimbledon, she reached her ninth US Open singles final. There she met 20-year-old Naomi Osaka of Japan — her childhood idol’s opponent, playing in her first Grand Slam final.
The match itself was a 6-2, 6-4 Osaka victory, but the surrounding events became defining. Chair umpire Carlos Ramos gave Williams three code violations during the second set — for coaching, racket abuse, and verbal abuse after Williams called him a “thief.” The third violation cost Williams an entire game. The crowd at Arthur Ashe booed sustained throughout the trophy presentation. Osaka, the new champion, cried openly. Williams, in a moment that has been widely cited in the years since, urged the crowd to stop booing and to celebrate Osaka’s victory.
In 2019, Williams returned again to the US Open final — her tenth — and lost to Bianca Andreescu of Canada 6-3, 7-5. Andreescu was 19 years old, ranked 15th in the world, and had not played the US Open before.
The 2018 and 2019 finals — both losses — meant that Williams’s pursuit of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles, sitting at 23, would never be completed at Flushing Meadows. She had reached two consecutive US Open finals and been denied the record by two of the most promising young players of the next generation.
The Farewell: 2022
Serena Williams announced her retirement from professional tennis in a Vogue essay published in August 2022. The 2022 US Open became her farewell tournament — her last appearance on the courts where her career had begun.
The opening night of the tournament, on Monday, 29 August 2022, became one of the most-attended single sessions in US Open history. Celebrities packed the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands — Hugh Jackman, Mike Tyson, Spike Lee, Bill Clinton, Anna Wintour, Queen Latifah among them. The atmosphere was described by those present as closer to a once-in-a-generation boxing event than a first-round tennis match. Oprah Winfrey narrated a tribute video. Billie Jean King came onto the court afterwards.
Williams defeated Danka Kovinić in straight sets to advance. She then defeated second-seed Anett Kontaveit in the second round in three sets, in a match that produced one of the most electric atmospheres at Arthur Ashe Stadium in years. In the third round, after another three-set match, she lost to Ajla Tomljanović 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 — ending the career of the most decorated American tennis player of all time.
The farewell, in retrospect, was the perfect closing chapter. Williams played three matches, all of which packed Arthur Ashe to capacity, all of which produced extraordinary atmosphere, and in which Williams herself produced tennis worthy of her legacy.
The Numbers That Define It
Serena Williams’s career numbers at the US Open are essentially without parallel in the Open Era:
- 6 singles titles (tied for Open Era women’s record with Chris Evert; 1999, 2002, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2014)
- 10 singles finals reached (Open Era women’s record; tied with Novak Djokovic on the men’s side)
- 95 main-draw singles match wins
- Three consecutive titles (2012-2014) — joining the elite group of women to win three in a row at the US Open
- First African American woman in the Open Era to win the US Open (1999) and the first since Althea Gibson in 1958
- First sister-vs-sister Grand Slam final (2001 vs Venus)
- First Serena Slam completed at the US Open (2002)
- Oldest US Open women’s champion in the Open Era (32 years old in 2014)
She played 22 US Opens over a 23-year career. She reached the final in every decade she competed. She produced the first sister Slam final and the most-attended first-round match in tournament history.
Why It Was the US Open Specifically
Williams won Grand Slams at every venue. Seven Australian Opens. Seven Wimbledons. Three Roland Garros titles. Six US Opens. But the US Open was her tournament in a way the others were not, and the reasons are personal as much as athletic.
Personally, the US Open was her hometown Slam. Williams grew up in Compton, California, but began her professional career in the United States and treated Flushing Meadows as the centerpiece of her American year. The crowd of nearly 24,000 at Arthur Ashe Stadium reacted to her in a way no other crowd did — a roar that was specific to her, generated by an audience that included Black Americans, women’s sports fans, tennis fans, and New Yorkers who had adopted her as one of their own.
Athletically, the US Open’s hard courts were the surface that best suited her game. Her serve — already devastating on any surface — was at its most lethal on the medium-fast hard courts at Flushing Meadows. Her aggressive baseline game, built around flat groundstrokes and immediate point-construction, was ideally calibrated for the speed and consistency the US Open courts produced. Even after the 2020 surface switch from DecoTurf to Laykold slowed the courts marginally, the Williams game remained more dominant at Flushing Meadows than anywhere else.
Culturally, the US Open became the venue where Williams’s broader public profile expanded into a phenomenon. Her sister rivalries, her record-pursuit narratives, her advocacy for equal pay and against unfair officiating, her returns from injury and motherhood — all played out on Arthur Ashe Stadium in front of New York’s tennis-engaged celebrity culture. The intersection of athletic excellence and cultural meaning that defined her career was, in many ways, manufactured at Flushing Meadows.
The Bottom Line
Serena Williams’s record at the US Open — six titles, ten finals, 95 match wins, the first African American woman of the Open Era to win it, the first sister-Slam final, the 2018 and 2019 finals lost in pursuit of Margaret Court’s record, the 2022 farewell — places her at the center of the tournament’s modern history in a way no other player can claim. The numbers are extraordinary. The matches are some of the most-watched in the sport’s history. The cultural significance of her career, anchored by Arthur Ashe Stadium, may not be matched again in women’s tennis.
She may not finish her career with the absolute Grand Slam record — Margaret Court’s 24 will remain ahead of her 23. But the modern era of the US Open belongs unmistakably to one player. From 1999 to 2022, from her first Grand Slam title to her farewell match, Serena Williams was the US Open, and the US Open was Serena Williams. Everything else, in the modern history of this tournament, sits in relation to that.
