In 2010 and 2011, Serena Williams was overwhelmed by a depressing series of health scares that sent her to the hospital repeatedly and kept her away from tennis for 10 months.
In July of 2012, on Centre Court at Wimbledon, Williams dropped down to the grass, hands covering her face…a champion again.
In September of 2013, she did it again.
Williams, who turns 32 on Sept. 26, raised her Grand Slam singles title count to 17, the sixth-most in history and one shy of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
A few days after winning Wimbledon in 2010, Serena Williams cut both feet on broken glass while leaving a restaurant in Germany. She needed two operations on her right foot, suffered from blood clots in her lungs and was required to inject herself with a blood thinner. The shots led to a pool of blood gathering under her stomach’s skin, which required an additional procedure.
“I just remember, I was on the couch and I didn’t leave the whole day, for two days. I was just over it. I was praying, like, `I can’t take any more. I’ve endured enough. Let me be able to get through this,’” recalled Serena.
“She hasn’t had an easy road. Things have happened in her life that you can’t predict or control, so it’s hard to be in that situation. Things happen that you didn’t deserve,” said Venus, who is dealing with anautoimmune disease called Sjogren’s Syndrome. “For her to fight through that and come back and be a champion…it was definitely emotional.”
“That made her realize where her life was, really, and where she really belonged and that she really loved the game,” said Williams’ mother, Oracene Price. “You never appreciate anything until you almost lose it.”
Serena also declared: “I have never felt better.”
