A former world number one, Serena Williams cannot be far away from another spell at the top of the world rankings.
That said, even if she never returned to the pinnacle, she would still go down in history as one of the most successful, powerful and fearsome competitors that women's tennis has ever seen.

Serena Williams has won 10 Grand Slam singles titles, and is one of an elite group of players to have been successful in all four of the Grand Slams in both singles and doubles. She is quite simply one of those players who has done it all.

Serena Williams became a professional in 1995, aged 14, and enjoyed some doubles success in Grand Slams in the early years of her career, similar to her older sister Venus' achievements.

Then, in 1999, Serena Williams catapulted onto the world stage with her first Grand Slam singles title, winning the US Open to become the first African-American woman to claim the event since Althea Gibson in 1958.

Williams had to wait for her next singles Grand Slam, but she made up for lost time when it did come, securing three out of the four Slams in 2002 by powering her way to French Open, Wimbledon and US Open success.

She followed this up with a successful defence of her Wimbledon crown and the Australian Open title the next year.

The next couple of years were a struggle as Serena Williams battled with injury and loss of form, but she was back to her best by 2007, clinching her third Australian Open.

2008 brought more joy with a third US Open and doubles gold at the Beijing Olympics, while she began 2009 with a fourth Australian title.