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Despite U.S. Open Loss, Serena Williams is still the Greatest of All Time

NNPA NEWSWIRE — “Is Serena the GOAT? She reinvented tennis. She invented #BlackGirlMagic. She has all of the trophies ever, and she stands for equality of women around the globe. Is Serena the greatest athlete of all time? Please,” said The Undefeated Magazine’s managing editor Raina Kelley.

Published

6 years ago

September 8, 2019

Oakland Post

"Serena Williams's legacy is sealed, whether or not she ever hits a tennis ball again," Tera W. Hunter, a professor of history and African American studies at Princeton, wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. (Photo: Si.robi / Wikimedia Commons)

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

Serena Williams lost her bid for what would have been her seventh U.S. Open Singles title.

It was the second straight year that Williams lost in the finals.

But, with 23 Grand Slam tournament titles and a .850 career winning percentage, Williams legacy as the world’s greatest tennis player was solidified a long time ago.

“Serena Williams’s legacy is sealed, whether or not she ever hits a tennis ball again,” Tera W. Hunter, a professor of history and African American studies at Princeton, wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times.

“It’s sad she didn’t beat Bianca Andreescu at the finals of the U.S. Open Championships and match Margaret Court’s record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. But her contributions to the game are much bigger than reaching another Grand Slam Final,” Hunter wrote.

Williams, 37, began playing tennis at the age of 5 in Compton, California.

Under the tutelage of her father, Richard Williams, Serena and her sister Venus rose to stardom in the 1990s. The duo took the tennis world by storm with Serena Williams ultimately surpassing her sister and others as easily the best in the sport.

Serena Williams, who has earned approximately $100 million in her career, won her first Grand Slam title at the age of 17 and she hasn’t looked back.

Here are just some of her accomplishments:

At the 1999 U.S. Open, became the second African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title at 17 years old.
By winning the 2001 Australian Open doubles championship with Venus Williams, became the fifth pair to complete a Career Doubles Grand Slam and the only pair to win a Career Doubles Golden Slam.
At the 2001 U.S. Open, marked the first time in the Open Era, and the second time in 117 years that sisters met in a Grand Slam final (with Venus)
At the 2002 Roland Garros final, she became the first younger sister to defeat her older sister in a Grand Slam singles tournament.
By winning the 2003 Australian Open, became the fifth woman to hold all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously.
By winning the 2003 Australian Open, became the first African-American to win the championship.
By winning the 2003 Wimbledon ladies’ title, Williams became just the fifth woman in the Open Era to win back-to-back Wimbledon crowns.
By reaching the final of the 2003 Australian Open, she and sister Venus became the first players to compete in 4 consecutive slam finals.
By winning the 2005 Australian Open by defeating Mauresmo and Davenport, became the only player in tennis history to win three Grand Slam singles titles (1999 U.S. Open, 2002 Roland Garros) by beating the top two ranked players.
By winning the 2007 Australian Open became the first unseeded player since 1978 to win a slam; she was ranked #81 in the world.
Her six-year gap between Wimbledon titles (2003–2009) is second only to Evonne Goolagong Cawley’s nine years in the Open Era.
Her eleven-year gap between Roland Garros titles (2002–2013) is the longest in the Open Era.
By winning the 2010 Roland Garros doubles with sister Venus, they became the first pair since 1998 to hold the four doubles slams at the same time.
By winning the 2010 Roland Garros doubles with sister Venus, they became the first pair in the Open Era to complete the Career Doubles Golden Slam twice (2001 & 2003 Australian Open, 1999 & 2010 Roland Garros, 2000 & 2002 Wimbledon, 1999 & 2009 U.S. Open, and 2000 & 2008 Olympic gold medalists).
In 2012 Wimbledon, in her semifinal match against Azarenka, she hit a record 24 aces in a match.
At the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, she set a record for most aces served in a tournament, hitting 102 aces in the tournament, which was the most of men or women at the Championships that year.
In 2014, she won her 6th U.S. Open title, the most in the Open Era (tied with Evert)
In 2017, she won her 7th Australian Open title, the most in the Open Era (stands alone).
Four-time Olympian (2000, 2008, 2012, 2016); Four-time Olympic medalist (4 golds)
Rio 2016 Olympic Games, T-9th (singles); T-17th (doubles)
London 2012 Olympic Games, gold (singles, doubles)
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, gold (doubles), T-5th (singles)
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, gold (doubles)

“She’s without question the embodiment of strength, character, and accomplishment,” said Julio C. Rodriguez, of Université Paris-Sorbonne.

The Undefeated Magazine’s managing editor Raina Kelley summed up why Williams is the Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali of her sport.

“Serena Jameka Williams did not come just come to play — she came to slay. And you are alive to see it,” Kelley said.

“Is Serena the GOAT? She reinvented tennis. She invented #BlackGirlMagic. She has all of the trophies ever, and she stands for equality of women around the globe. Is Serena the greatest athlete of all time? Please,” Kelley said.

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LIVE from the NMA Convention Raheem DeVaughn Says The Time Is Now: Let’s End HIV in Our Communities #2

Set against the backdrop of the NMA conference, Executive Officers from the National Medical Association, Grammy Award Winning Artist and Advocate Raheem DeVaughn, and Gilead Sciences experts, are holding today an important conversation on HIV prevention and health equity. Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event […]

Published

6 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event is designed to uplift voices, explore barriers to access, and increase awareness and key updates about PrEP, a proven prevention method that remains underutilized among Black women. This timely gathering will feature voices from across health, media, and advocacy as we break stigma and center equity in HIV prevention.

Additional stats and information to know:

● Black women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, with Black women representing more than 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the U.S. in 2022, despite comprising just 13% of women in the U.S.

● Women made up only 8% of PrEP users despite representing 19% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2022.

● Gilead Sciences is increasing awareness and addressing stigma by encouraging regular HIV testing and having judgment-free conversations with your healthcare provider about prevention options, including oral PrEP and long-acting injectable PrEP options.

● PrEP is an HIV prevention medication that has been available since 2012.

● Only 1 in 3 people in the U.S. who could benefit from PrEP were prescribed a form of PrEP in 2022.

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TRUMP: “Washington, D.C. is Safe”

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — President Trump, who typically travels with a full contingent of high-level protection, insinuated that he finally felt safe enough to go to dinner in the District of Columbia. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years,” said the nation’s 47th president.

Published

6 days ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

By Apriil Ryan
BlackPressUSA Washington Bureau Chief and White House Correspondent

“Washington, D.C. is safe,” President Trump declared from the Oval Office today. Those words came while Trump was hosting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During the question-and-answer session, which primarily focused on a peace deal in the Russian-Ukrainian war, Trump explained, “You did that in four days.” He was speaking of how fast the National Guard quelled the violence in what was once called Chocolate City.

The President deployed the National Guard to D.C. a week ago, to a city with reduced crime rates over the previous year. Violent crime dropped by 26%, marking the lowest level in 30 years. Homicides also fell by 11%.

President Trump, who typically travels with a full contingent of high-level protection, insinuated that he finally felt safe enough to go to dinner in the District of Columbia. “My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years,” said the nation’s 47th president.

Trump reinforced his claim about the newly acquired safety in D.C. by relaying that a friend’s son is attending dinner in D.C., something he would not have done last year.

After the president finished his comments, a reporter/commentator in the room with close connections to Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped into the high-level conversation to affirm the president’s comments, saying, “I walked around yesterday with MTG. If you can walk around D.C. with MTG and not be attacked, this city is safe.”

That reporter was the same person who chastised President Zelenskyy months ago during his first Oval Office meeting with Trump for not wearing a business suit. Zelenskyy, a wartime President, has been clad in less formal attire to reflect the country’s current war stance against Russia.

Without any sourcing, President Trump also said, “People that haven’t gone out to dinner in Washington, D.C., in two years are going out to dinner, and the restaurants the last two days have been busier than they’ve been in a long time.”

The increase in policing in Washington, D.C. is because a 19-year-old former Doge employee was carjacked in the early hours of the morning recently.

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Rising Energy Costs Weigh Heaviest on Black Households

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — For many African American families, the cost of keeping the lights on and homes heated or cooled is not just a monthly bill — it’s a crushing financial burden.

Published

6 days ago

February 3, 2026

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

For many African American families, the cost of keeping the lights on and homes heated or cooled is not just a monthly bill — it’s a crushing financial burden.

A new national study from Binghamton University and California State University, San Bernardino, finds that Black households spend a far larger share of their income on energy compared to white households, even when income levels are the same. “We often say that African Americans suffer more, but we often blame it just on income. And the reality is, there is something more there,” study author George Homsy, associate professor at Binghamton University, wrote. “It’s not just because they tend to be poor. There is something that’s putting them at a disadvantage. I think what happened is it happens to be where they live.” The study, published in Energy Research & Social Science, analyzed 65,000 census tracts across the United States. It found that while the average American household spends about 3.2% of income on energy bills, households in the majority African American census tracts spend an average of 5.1%.

Homsy and researcher Ki Eun Kang point to the age and condition of housing stock, along with lower homeownership rates, as key drivers. Their research concludes that “energy burden is not simply a matter of income or energy cost but also race, which might be driven by place.” Older, less energy-efficient housing and high rental rates in Black communities mean residents often cannot make upgrades like improved insulation or new appliances, locking families into higher bills.

Tradeoffs and Health Risks

The consequences go beyond money. Families forced to spend 10% or more of their income on energy — what experts classify as “unmanageable” — may cut back on food, medicine, or other essentials. More than 12 million U.S. households report leaving their homes at unsafe temperatures to reduce costs, while millions more fall behind on utility bills. The health effects are severe. High energy burdens increase risks of asthma, depression, poor sleep, pneumonia, and even premature death. The issue is especially acute for African Americans, who are disproportionately exposed to housing and environmental conditions that amplify these risks.

Washington, D.C.: A Case Study

In Washington, D.C., the problem is particularly stark. A recent analysis by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) shows that SNAP-eligible households spend more than 20% of their income on energy bills. Across the metro area, nearly two-thirds of low-income households devote over 6% of their income to energy, and 40% face what researchers call a “severe financial strain,” paying more than 10%. Pepco, the District’s primary electricity provider, has implemented three consecutive annual rate hikes, pushing the average household bill to $114 per month as of January 2025. Shutoffs have followed — nearly 12,000 customers lost service in 2024, with disconnections doubling after a summer rate hike. Washington Gas has also sought a 12% rate increase and pushed a controversial $215 million pipeline replacement project, rebranded as “District SAFE.” The plan could ultimately cost D.C. households an additional $45,000 each over several decades, or nearly $1,000 annually added to bills.

Historical Roots

Researchers argue that these inequities are not accidental but rooted in history. The ScienceDirect study reveals that African American communities living in formerly redlined neighborhoods continue to face disadvantages today — from poor housing quality to higher climate risks. Homsy says policymakers must make targeted efforts. “It is harder to get to rental units where a lot of poor people live,” he noted. “We need to work harder to get into these communities of color.”