<Tr> <Td> Plays: </Td> <Td> Right - handed (two - handed backhand) </Td> <Td> Right - handed (two - handed backhand) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Career Earnings: </Td> <Td> $36,785,743 (2nd) </Td> <Td> $85,461,751 (1st) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Williams sisters are two professional American tennis players: Venus Williams (b . 1980), a seven - time Grand Slam title winner (singles), and Serena Williams (b . 1981), twenty - three - time Grand Slam title winner (singles), both of whom were coached from an early age by their parents Richard Williams and Oracene Price . There is a noted professional rivalry between them--between the 2001 US Open and the 2017 Australian Open tournaments, they met in nine Grand Slam singles finals . They became the first two players, female or male, to play in 4 consecutive grand slam singles finals from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open; Serena famously won all 4 to complete the first of two "Serena Slams". Between 2000 and 2016, a 17 - year span, they collectively won 12 Wimbledon singles titles (Venus won 5 and Serena won 7). By winning the 2001 Australian Open women's doubles title, they became the 5th pair to complete the Career Doubles Grand Slam and the only pair to complete the Career Doubles Golden Slam . At the time, Venus and Serena were only 20 and 19 years old, respectively . Since then they have gone on to add another two Olympic gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics . Nearly a decade later, the duo would go on to win 4 consecutive grand slam doubles titles from 2009 Wimbledon through 2010 Roland Garros, which would catapult them to co-No. 1 doubles players on 7 June 2010 . Two weeks later, on 21 June 2010, Serena would hold the No. 1 singles ranking and Venus would be right behind her at No. 2 in singles . Their most recent grand slam doubles titles came at the 2012 Wimbledon & 2016 Wimbledon events . They remain very close, often watching each other's matches in support, even after one of them has been knocked out of a tournament . </P> <P> Both sisters have been ranked by the Women's Tennis Association at the World No. 1 position in both singles & doubles . In 2002, after the French Open, Venus Williams and Serena Williams were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, marking the first time in history that sisters occupied the Top - 2 singles spots in the world rankings . During the 2010 French Open, they became the co-world No. 1 players in women's doubles . On 21 June 2010, Serena and Venus again held the No. 1 and No. 2 rankings spots in singles, respectively, some eight years after first accomplishing this feat . At the time, Serena was three months shy of her 29th birthday and Venus had just celebrated her 30th birthday . </P>

What age did the williams sisters start playing tennis