Sports Illustrated names Serena Williams its Sportsperson of the Year

Serena Williams on the cover of Sports Illustrated

(Image credit: Twitter.com/SInow)

published 14 December 2015

Serena Williams has had quite the year. Sports Illustrated agrees, naming her their 2015 Sportsperson of the Year.

Williams, 34, won three major titles, went 53–3 and provided at least one new measure of her tyrannical three-year reign at No. 1. For six weeks this summer — and for the first time in the 40-year history of the WTA rankings — Williams amassed twice as many ranking points as the world No. 2; at one point that gap grew larger than the one between No. 2 and No. 1,000. Williams' 21 career Grand Slam singles titles are just one short of Steffi Graf's Open-era record. Such numbers are reason enough for Sports Illustrated to name Serena Williams its 2015 Sportsperson of the Year. [Sports Illustrated]

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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.