Serena Williams Trivia
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60 free Serena Williams trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free Serena Williams trivia questions with answers. Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals and 73 tour-level trophies, and spent 319 weeks as world No. 1. This Serena Williams trivia quiz covers the whole story: her birth in Michigan, the public courts of Compton, her father's famous plan, the 1999 US Open breakthrough at 17, the two Serena Slams, the 2017 Australian Open won while pregnant, the 14-year Indian Wells boycott, the 2018 US Open final, and her farewell to Ajla Tomljanović at the 2022 US Open. It also goes beyond the court: her marriage to Alexis Ohanian in New Orleans, daughters Olympia and Adira, Serena Ventures, her stakes in the Miami Dolphins and Angel City FC, the catsuit Roland Garros banned, King Richard, and a surprise crip walk at the Super Bowl. Questions run from easy to genuinely hard, so casual fans and tennis obsessives both get a workout. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference source, so you can settle arguments with confidence. For more, try BrainPickle's tennis trivia and women in sports quizzes.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Serena Williams grew up in California, but in which state was she born?
Michigan
Michigan: she was born in Saginaw, her mother's home town, fifteen months after her sister was born in California, and the family moved back west soon afterwards.
Q 02Serena Williams was born in 1981, within weeks of which men's tennis great?
Roger Federer
Roger Federer: he is seven weeks the elder, and the two bowed out together as well, playing what were billed as their farewell matches three weeks apart in September 2022.
Q 03In which California city did Serena and her sister learn tennis on public courts?
Compton
Compton: the choice was deliberate, because their father wanted his daughters to grow up seeing the gang-ridden streets around the courts and what awaited them if they did not work hard.
Q 04When Serena Williams was nine, her family moved to Florida so she could train at which coach's academy?
Rick Macci
Rick Macci: the family crossed the country for his academy, yet in 1995 their father dismissed him and went back to coaching both daughters himself, just as Serena was about to turn professional.
Q 05At 14, Serena Williams threatened to sue which organisation over a rule that stopped her turning professional?
The WTA Tour
The WTA Tour: it had barred 14-year-olds from its main events to stop young stars burning out, so she made her debut that October in qualifying at a small Quebec tournament and lost in under an hour.
Q 06At which tournament did Serena win her first Grand Slam singles title?
1999 US Open
1999 US Open: at 17 she won the family's first Grand Slam singles title, ten months before her older sister, who had turned professional first and reached the final in New York two years earlier.
Q 07Which world No. 1 did Serena Williams beat in the final to win her first Grand Slam singles title?
Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis: she had beaten Serena's older sister in the semifinal a day earlier, spoiling their father's prediction of an all-Williams final, then lost 6-3, 7-6 to the 17-year-old.
Q 08Serena Williams beat which opponent in all four finals of her 2002-03 'Serena Slam'?
Venus Williams
Venus Williams: she was world No. 1 and the defending champion when they met in the 2002 Wimbledon final, the second of the four, and losing it handed the top ranking to her younger sister.
Q 09Serena Williams's 23 singles majors sit one behind whose record?
Margaret Court
Margaret Court: 13 of the Australian's 24 came before the majors opened to professionals in 1968, which is why Serena's 23 stand as the women's Open Era record.
Q 10At the 2017 Australian Open, Serena's 23rd major broke whose Open Era record of 22?
Steffi Graf
Steffi Graf: Serena passed her total of 22 without losing a set in Melbourne and, it emerged that April, while about two months pregnant.
Q 11Which opponent won a 2009 US Open semifinal when Serena was docked match point for abusing a line judge?
Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters: a foot-fault call left Serena two match points down, and her tirade at the lineswoman cost a point penalty that ended it; the Belgian, a wild card just back from retirement, went on to win the title.
Q 12Who replaced Serena Williams as world No. 1 after 186 straight weeks?
Angelique Kerber
Angelique Kerber: Serena's semifinal loss at the 2016 US Open handed the German the top ranking before Kerber went on to win the title, and it left Serena's streak level with the record instead of one week past it.
Q 13Serena Williams is married to Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of which website?
Q 21The 2018 US Open final was overshadowed by Serena's row with which chair umpire?
Carlos Ramos
Carlos Ramos: he gave her three code violations, for coaching signals from her box, a smashed racket and calling him a thief, and the third cost her a whole game.
Q 22Which player beat Serena Williams at the 2022 US Open in her farewell match before a four-year retirement?
Ajla Tomljanović
Ajla Tomljanović: the Australian won their third-round match in three sets and just over three hours, in what was billed as Serena's last; she did not play singles again until Wimbledon in 2026.
Q 23In which magazine did Serena Williams announce in 2022 that she was 'evolving away from tennis'?
Vogue
Reddit: its co-founder met her by chance at a Rome hotel in 2015, when he took the table next to hers at breakfast and her friends tried to move him on by claiming there was a rat.
Q 14Serena and Alexis Ohanian married in November 2017 in which city?
New Orleans
New Orleans: the November 2017 wedding came eleven months after he proposed at the Rome hotel where the couple had first met, and the guests included Beyonce and Kim Kardashian.
Q 15By what name is Serena Williams's first daughter, born in September 2017, known?
Olympia
Olympia: formally she is Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., named after her father, and her mother was already about two months pregnant with her when she won the 2017 Australian Open.
Q 16Serena Williams revealed she was expecting her second child at which 2023 red-carpet event?
The Met Gala
The Met Gala: she arrived visibly pregnant in May 2023, nine months after saying she was stepping away from tennis to grow her family, and daughter Adira River was born that August.
Q 17A photo captioned '20 weeks' on which app revealed Serena Williams's first pregnancy in April 2017?
Snapchat
Snapchat: the post was deleted within minutes, but her spokesperson confirmed the news that evening, and the dates showed she had already been pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January.
Q 18After crowd abuse in 2001, Serena boycotted which tournament for 14 years?
Indian Wells
Indian Wells: the crowd booed her through the 2001 final after her sister pulled out of their semifinal injured, and her father said he heard racial slurs, so both sisters stayed away.
Q 19When Serena ended her 14-year tournament boycott in 2015, she partnered with which non-profit?
Equal Justice Initiative
Equal Justice Initiative: Bryan Stevenson's group represents people who may have been denied a fair trial, and she used her comeback at the event where she had been jeered to rally support for its work against racial injustice.
Q 20Who beat Serena in the controversial 2018 US Open final?
Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka: the 20-year-old won 6-2, 6-4 to become the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title, but boos aimed at the officiating drowned out her trophy ceremony.
Vogue: in the essay she said she had never liked the word retirement and preferred 'evolution', because she wanted to grow her family and her venture capital firm.
Q 24Which shot was the biggest weapon in Serena Williams's game?
Her serve
Her serve: its secret was disguise, because she tossed the ball to the same spot every time, so an opponent could not tell whether power, slice or topspin was coming.
Q 25At the 2012 London Olympics, Serena won singles gold by crushing which opponent in the final?
Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova: she won a single game in the 6-0, 6-1 final on Wimbledon's grass, and the gold completed Serena's set of all four majors plus the Olympic singles title.
Q 26Serena won her first Olympic gold, in doubles, at which Games?
Sydney 2000
Sydney 2000: she and her sister stayed unbeaten as an Olympic doubles pair for the next 16 years, winning gold again in 2008 and 2012 before losing their opening match in Rio.
Q 27At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Serena Williams lost in the singles quarterfinals to which eventual gold medallist?
Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva: she went on to beat Dinara Safina in an all-Russian final, and with Vera Zvonareva taking bronze Russia swept the singles medals.
Q 28Which coach joined Serena Williams in June 2012 and worked with her for the next decade?
Patrick Mouratoglou
Patrick Mouratoglou: she turned to the Frenchman after a shock first-round exit at the 2012 French Open and won ten of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles with him.
Q 29In which German city did Serena Williams cut her foot on broken glass in July 2010, days after winning Wimbledon?
Munich
Munich: she stepped on the glass leaving a restaurant and thought she had only stubbed her foot, but it had torn a tendon, and the world No. 1 missed the rest of the season.
Q 30In March 2011, Serena confirmed a hematoma and which life-threatening condition?
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism: a blood clot had reached her lungs, keeping her off court for months, and the same condition struck again after she gave birth in 2017.