A Timeline of Serena Williams’s Splits
Photo: Bryan Smith/CORBIS
If Serena Williams seems to go after shots that other players would let sail by, it’s because she knows she can get there. She hurtles herself toward the ball and makes contact, often extending into a split that’s at once powerful and graceful. Whether or not she wins the point, it makes for thrilling tennis. In her exhilarating U.S. Open quarterfinal match last night against sister Venus, she lunged for a backhand shot, slid into a split, and then quickly whipped her head around and popped back up.
She won the match 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, and advanced to the semi-finals, the next step in her quest to become the first person to win a calendar Grand Slam (that is, all four majors in the same year) since Steffi Graf in 1988.
Here is a look at Serena’s splits through history, from her days of beaded hair to her New York Fall Fashion Issue shoot with Norman Jean Roy.
The First Documented Split
A 17-year-old Serena lunged for the ball at the 1999 Lipton Tennis Championships only to watch it go foul. She won ...
The First Documented Split
A 17-year-old Serena lunged for the ball at the 1999 Lipton Tennis Championships only to watch it go foul. She won the match.
Photo: SHAWNA MORROW
The Racquet-Prop Split Using her racquet to get up at the 2004 WTA Tour Championships.
Photo: Robert Laberge/2004 Getty Images
The Blinking Split At the 2005 Australian Open, she literally did it with her eyes closed.
Photo: The AGE/Fairfax Media
The Sister Split Serena looking dejected during her 2008 U.S. open quarterfinal match against Venus, though she went on to beat her sister and wi...
The Sister Split Serena looking dejected during her 2008 U.S. open quarterfinal match against Venus, though she went on to beat her sister and win the Open.
Photo: John G. Mabanglo/© Corbis. All Rights Reserved.
The Traditional Split Serena lunges in her Wimbledon whites in 2009.
Photo: Hamish Blair/2009 Getty Images
The Fist-Pump Split This may be the first fist-pump split on record, and it is glorious. Serena won her 2009 Rogers Cup match against Yaroslava S...
The Fist-Pump Split This may be the first fist-pump split on record, and it is glorious. Serena won her 2009 Rogers Cup match against Yaroslava Shvedova but lost in the semi-finals.
Photo: Cyril Ma/Icon SMI/Icon Sports Media, Inc
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The Caught-Myself Split Serena rests on her left fingertips during the 2010 Australian Open as only Serena can.
Photo: PAUL CROCK/2010 AFP
The Comeback Split
After winning Wimbledon in 2010, Serena didn’t play for almost an entire year thanks to a foot injury and a blood clot in h...
The Comeback Split
After winning Wimbledon in 2010, Serena didn’t play for almost an entire year thanks to a foot injury and a blood clot in her lungs. She was understandably thrilled to win this point, and she later won the tournament.
Photo: MARK BLINCH/© Corbis. All Rights Reserved.
The Hopeful Split
Waiting to see if she made a shot in the 2011 U.S. Open final against Victoria Azarenka. She did, and she won the match, too...
The Hopeful Split
Waiting to see if she made a shot in the 2011 U.S. Open final against Victoria Azarenka. She did, and she won the match, too.
Photo: JESSICA RINALDI/Reuters/Corbis
The Dolphin Split For the 2014 Sony Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Serena wore Miami Dolphins colors and employed the racquet boost.
Photo: Cliv...
The Dolphin Split For the 2014 Sony Open in Key Biscayne, Florida, Serena wore Miami Dolphins colors and employed the racquet boost.
Photo: Clive Brunskill/2014 Getty Images
The Wide Split
This lateral extension during her semi-final match of June’s French Open may be even more mind-blowing than the others.
Photo:...
The Wide Split
This lateral extension during her semi-final match of June’s French Open may be even more mind-blowing than the others.
Photo: Clive Brunskill/2015 Getty Images
The Casual Split Practicing the move suspended on the rings, as you do.
The High-Fashion Split At her recent New York photo shoot with Norman Jean Roy, she wears a bodysuit with a cutout framing her insane abs.
The Split Heard 'Round the World
Williams arrived at the 2015 U.S. Open facing mounds of pressure as she vied to become the first person to wi...
The Split Heard 'Round the World
Williams arrived at the 2015 U.S. Open facing mounds of pressure as she vied to become the first person to win a calendar Grand Slam since 1988. Her double-fist-pump split in a third-round match against Bethanie Mattek-Sands was caught on Vine and looped more than 1 million times, and made headlines everywhere.
Photo: Bryan Smith/CORBIS
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