Serena Williams honored with 2024 Glamour Global Woman of the Year Award

Despite retiring from tennis over two years ago, Serena Williams continues to rack up the accolades as she was recently selected to be the 2024 Global Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine.

Williams retired at the 2022 US Open, putting an end to an illustrious career that spanned over two decades. The highly decorated athlete achieved every milestone in the world of tennis, winning everything from Olympic gold to a record 23 Grand Slam titles, in addition to spending 319 weeks as World No.1.

Although the WTA legend appeared to achieve all these feats with little effort, she admits to having faced a lot of adversity en route to her superstardom.

"You only see the finals—did she win, did she lose,” said Williams in an interview with Glamour Magazine. “You don’t see when I couldn’t breathe, when I was seeing stars on the court. This is letting people who are interested or who want to be motivated see: This is what it takes."

With more free time on her hands following her retirement, Williams has been focused on other ventures, including her fashion line and financial investments. However, raising her two daughters has been the most tedious, yet rewarding aspect of being retired.

"I look at my mom in amazement. She did that five times, and she’s had the horrible experience of losing one of her children,” Williams says, invoking her sister Yetunde Price, who was killed in 2003. “So you know what? You just have to keep your mouth shut and complain to your sisters.
"I mean, I grew up with girls. I’d honestly never been around boys unless I was dating one. And sisters are so special."