Williams also became only the sixth woman in history to win the singles titles at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in consecutive years, the others being Martina Navratilova (twice), Steffi Graf (twice), Althea Gibson, Maureen Connolly Brinker, and Helen Wills Moody (twice).

Williams defeated former champion Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals and Kim Clijsters in the semifinals to advance to her fourth consecutive Wimbledon final, where she lost again to sister Serena.

Williams completed the year by losing in the quarterfinals of three indoor tournaments in the fall, a period that included defeat in her first meeting with 17-year-old Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova at the Zurich Open.

In the quarterfinals of the tournament, she defeated French Open runner-up Pierce in a second-set tiebreak, winning it 12–10 to make the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in two years.

At the U.S. Open, Williams achieved her second consecutive win over sister Serena in the fourth round, but then lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Kim Clijsters.

She returned in February at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, defeating top-seeded Shahar Pe'er in the final, her first singles title since her victory at Wimbledon in 2005.

This win meant Williams was ranked in the top five for the first time since 2003, while it also marked her 40th professional singles title, only the twelfth player in the Open era to achieve the feat.

Teaming with her sister, she played doubles and won the title, defeating Monica Niculescu and Chan Yung-jan. At the U.S. Open, as the third seed, Williams made it to the fourth round, before losing to Kim Clijsters in three sets.

The knee injury that hampered her during the final of the Miami Open forced her to skip the Fed Cup tie against Russia and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

The injury forced Williams to pull out of the Fed Cup quarterfinal against Belgium, the Dubai Tennis Championships, and the Mexican Open, where she was the two-time defending champion in both tournaments.

She was scheduled to meet 22nd seed Sabine Lisicki in the second round, but withdrew before the match began after being diagnosed with Sjögren syndrome, an autoimmune disease which causes fatigue and muscle and joint pain.

In just the pair's first tournament since 2010 Wimbledon, the unseeded sisters advanced to the final with victories over fourth-seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the second round and top-seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the semifinals.

Her next tournament was at the Qatar Open where she saved a match point in a heated encounter versus Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová in the second round before defeating Agnieszka Radwańska for a second time in 2015 to advance to the semifinals.

She defeated Magda Linette in the second round and compatriots Catherine Bellis and Alison Riske in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, to reach her eighth final in Stanford.

The pair then defeated Italy in the quarterfinals and India in the semifinals to set up a clash with the United States team of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock in the gold medal match.

At the Indian Wells Open, Williams came back from a set down and saved three match points in the second round to defeat Jelena Janković, tying their head-to-head record at seven-all.

As the fifth seed and defending finalist at the Australian Open, Williams lost in straight sets to Belinda Bencic in the first round, ending her streak of seven consecutive appearances in the second week of the Grand Slams, and as a result dropping considerably in the rankings as well.

She subsequently knocked out defending champion Johanna Konta in the fourth round, before falling rather unexpectedly to her compatriot and qualifier Danielle Collins in the quarterfinals.

Williams began her U.S. Open Series at the Silicon Valley Classic after accepting a wildcard, defeating Heather Watson in the second round, before losing in the quarterfinals to eventual finalist Maria Sakkari.

At the U.S. Open, Williams defeated 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Camila Giorgi en route to a third round encounter – and 30th career match overall, with Serena, where she was handed her most-lopsided loss against her in five years.

Ranked 36th and unseeded at Indian Wells, Williams started with a win over Andrea Petkovic, before coming back from a set and a double break down to beat the third seed Petra Kvitová in the second round.

She then defeated Christina McHale and Mona Barthel to advance to her third straight Indian Wells quarterfinal, where she lost to the eighth seed and eventual runner-up, Angelique Kerber.

[68] She defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first round to set up a meeting with Wang Qiang, which Williams also won to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to eventual champion and new world No.

[76] In January, she received a wildcard for the main draw of Auckland Open, and started her 30th year on the WTA Tour with a straight-sets victory over fellow American Katie Volynets in the first round.

Despite years of protesting by tennis pioneer Billie Jean King and others, in 2005 the French Open and Wimbledon still refused to pay women's and men's players equally through all rounds.

[89] In the aftermath, the Chicago Sun-Times cited Williams as "the single factor" that "changed the minds of the boys" and a leader whose "willingness to take a public stand separates her not only from most of her female peers, but also from our most celebrated male athletes".

"[91] Williams herself became the first woman to benefit from the equalization of prize money at Wimbledon, as she won the 2007 tournament and was awarded the same amount as the male winner Roger Federer.

Braasch, the world's 203rd-ranked player, was more than 13 years older than the sisters and was described by a journalist as "a man whose training regime centered around a pack of cigarettes and more than a couple bottles of ice cold lager.

[103][104] On June 9, 2017, Williams was driving in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, when another car collided with her SUV before she cleared the intersection, a crash that killed a 78-year-old man and injured another person.

Chris Evert (1975/1985 – 260 w) Evonne Goolagong (1976 – 2 w) Martina Navratilova (1978/1987 – 331 w) Tracy Austin (1980 – 22 w) Steffi Graf (1987/1997 – 377 w) // Monica Seles (1991/1996 – 178 w) Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1995 – 12 w) Martina Hingis (1997/2001 – 209 w) Lindsay Davenport (1998/2006 – 98 w) Jennifer Capriati (2001/2002 – 17 w) Venus Williams (2002 – 11 w) Serena Williams (2002/2017 – 319 w) Kim Clijsters (2003/2011 – 20 w) Justine Henin (2003/2008 – 117 w) Amélie Mauresmo (2004/2006 – 39 w) Maria Sharapova (2005/2012 – 21 w) Ana Ivanovic (2008 – 12 w) Jelena Janković (2008/2009 – 18 w) Dinara Safina (2009 – 26 w) Caroline Wozniacki (2010/2018 – 71 w) Victoria Azarenka (2012/2013 – 51 w) Angelique Kerber (2016/2017 – 34 w) Karolína Plíšková (2017 – 8 w) Garbiñe Muguruza (2017 – 4 w) Simona Halep (2017/2019 – 64 w) Naomi Osaka (2019 – 25 w) Ashleigh Barty (2019/2022 – 121 w) Iga Świątek (2022/2024 – 125 w) Aryna Sabalenka (2023/2024 – 9 w)