American tennis star Serena Williams had another outstanding year, winning the French Open and the US Open to take her career total of Open Era Grand Slam singles victories to 17 – just five behind Steffi Graf and one behind Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. When she regained the world No 1 ranking in February 2013, she became the oldest woman in the Open Era, at 31, to achieve it. In the year she won eight other tournaments, including the WTA Championship, taking her career prize money to US$50 million.

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