She narrowly missed the first calendar year Grand Slam when she suffered an upset loss during the US Open in September.
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Over her two decades as a professional tennis star, Serena Williams has accomplished as much-if not more-than any other athlete during her generation.
Williams is now the second woman to grace the cover of a major national magazine’s annual honor issue in December: Time magazine named German chancellor Angela Merkel its Person of the Year last week.
At 34 years old, an age often viewed as a career twilight in tennis, Williams had arguably the best season of her career. “For Sports Illustrated to recognise my hard work, dedication and sheer determination with this award gives me hope to continue on and do better”. Sports Illustrated honors her dominance in 2015, when she won 53 of her 56 matches, three of the four Grand Slam events and built the most yawning ranking points gap between her and her closest competitor in tennis history.
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Williams is the first woman to be recognised with the honour as an individual since Mary Decker in 1983, and the magazine took the opportunity to rename its award from Sportsman of the Year to Sportsperson of the Year. “It just feels like the right time to make the change”.
