25 of the Most Influential Women in Sports | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

An American male has not won a men’s singles Grand Slam championship in over a decade. The last time was 2003, when Andre Agassi won the Australian Open and Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open. That year marked, for all intents and purposes, the death of men’s tennis in the United States.

Although American men have been coming up short in a big way, one American woman has taken it upon herself to see that the U.S. remains an international force to be reckoned with in the sport.

That woman is, of course, Serena Williams, who has won 13 individual Grand Slams in that time—not to mention eight doubles Grand Slams and three Olympic gold medals. In her entire career, she's won 17 singles Grand Slams, 13 women's doubles Grand Slams, two mixed doubles Grand Slams and four Olympic gold medals.

Serena is often discussed in conjunction with her older sister, Venus, who has seven individual career Grand Slam wins to her name. While Venus has certainly made an impression in her own right, there is simply no comparison between the two. Venus was a great tennis player, but Serena, who was named the AP’s Female Athlete of the Year in 2013 at age 32, is one of the greatest female athletes of all time.

Her place on the all-time list of all athletes can (and has) been much discussed but somehow not quite as debated as her place on tennis’ all-time list. No one would ever argue Steffi Graf is the greatest female athlete of all time, but she still has five more Grand Slams (22) to her name than Williams.