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Wimbledon icon: Serena Williams

Between 2000 and 2010, the Williams sisters made Wimbledon their own, with Venus taking five titles and Serena adding four more in what was a dominant spell for the illustrious American duo.

But while Venus was unable to add to her fifth and final Wimbledon title in 2008, Serena added three more wins at the All England Club to move level with the great Steffi Graf on seven successes at SW19 during the Open Era.

In fact, only Martina Navratilova's tally of nine Wimbledon wins has bettered the efforts of Serena during the Open Era.

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Sisterly rivalry drives success

Serena won her first Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open and it didn't take long for her to replicate that success at Wimbledon.

In 2002, in what was only her fourth Wimbledon start, Serena made her grass court breakthrough, beating older sister Venus, who was the two-time defending champion, to take the title.

That victory threatened to open the floodgates and she made it a successful title defence a year later, again getting the better of her envious sibling.

Serena looked on course to bring up the hat-trick in 2004, but suffered a shock defeat to Russian rookie Maria Sharapova, who at the time was only 17 years of age.

Some tough times followed that defeat for Serena at Wimbledon and it wasn't until 2008 that she made her next final at the All England Club.

It wasn't to be as Venus gained some much-needed revenge in their rivalry, recording a routine straight-sets triumph.

But in 2009, in what proved to be the fourth and last Wimbledon final between the Williams sisters, Serena was back on top as she ended a six-year wait for silverware at the All England Club.

By the end of their rivalry, the pair had locked horns in nine Grand Slam finals with Serena winning on seven occasions, the most recent of which came at the 2017 Australian Open final.

That win in Melbourne also rewarded Serena with her 23rd and final Grand Slam success, a feat which moved her one ahead of Graff but still left her one behind Margaret Court.

Peak Serena tough to stop

Serena has an incredible record at Wimbledon, winning 98 out of 112 matches, collecting seven titles from the 11 finals she has contested.

The sheer power of Serena made her extremely difficult to contain on her day, but she also had unbelievable speed and flexibility to match her sheer passion and determination.

Those attributes made her a formidable opponent and was part of the reason why she was able to hold on to her legacy late into her 30s.

Even when taking a break from tennis to give birth in September 2017, it took the 36-year-old only 10 months until she had returned to the top.

Williams was bedridden for six weeks after giving birth but was on the brink of rewriting history at Wimbledon in July 2018.

However, her exertions of making that final told as she was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Angelique Kerber.

And that proved to be a common theme in the final years of Williams' reign as she went on to make three more Grand Slam finals, including in 2019 at Wimbledon when again failing short to the fresher legs of Simona Halep.

In September, the same month as she turned 41, Serena eventually called time on her playing career having won 73 titles, 23 of which were Grand Slam events.

Having lost in 10 Grand Slam finals, Williams may feel a sense of what could have been in her pursuit of 24-time Major winner Court.

However, she will forever be remembered as one of the greatest players of all-time, particularly on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon where she enjoyed some of her happiest moments.

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