Serena Williams of the U.S. embraces her trophy after defeating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark
Top-ranked athlete Serena Williams won her sixth US Open title recently. It was her 18th Grand Slam victory. She entered the tournament as the top seed. In the early rounds, Williams beat Taylor Townsend, Vania King, Varvara Lepchenko, and Kaia Kanepi in the first rounds. In the quarterfinals, Williams faced No. 11 Flavia Pennetta of Italy. Ekaterina Makarova wasn’t able to stop Williams on her quest toward an 18th Grand Slam title as the American beat her in two straight sets in the semifinals. Willams’ finals match was with her good friend Caroline Wozniacki. She beat the Danish star to win her sixth US Open title, her third in the last three years. Reuters

Serena Williams crashed into the tennis scene as an 18-year-old hotshot 15 years ago winning the 1999 US Open against tennis legend Martina Hingis in the championship round of the Grand Slam in New York. Spanning three decades now and currently a veteran campaigner in the women’s circuit at 32 years old, the American ace has won her 18th Grand Slam title after beating Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the 2014 US Open.

18 Grand Slam titles in 15 years is a dominant stat from any perspective and here’s the list of her victims on the way to feat:

1999 (1 title)
US Open – def. Martina Hingis (Switzerland), 6-3, 7-6 (4)

2002 (3 titles)
French Open – def. Venus Williams (USA), 7-5, 6-3
Wimbledon Championships – def. Venus Williams (USA), 7-6, 6-3
US Open – def. Venus Williams (USA), 6-4, 6-3

2003 (2 titles)
Australian Open – def. Venus Williams (USA), 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4
Wimbledon Championships – Venus Williams (USA), 4-6, 6-4, 6-2

2005 (1 title)
Australian Open – def. Lindsay Davenport (USA), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0

2007 (1 title)
Australian Open – Maria Sharapova (Russia), 6-1, 6-2

2008 (1 title)
US Open – def. Jelena Jankovic (Serbia), 6-4, 7-5

2009 (2 titles)
Australian Open – def. Dinara Safina (Russia), 6-0, 6-3
Wimbledon Championships – def. Venus Williams (USA), 7-6 (3), 6-2

2010 (2 titles)
Australian Open – def. Justin Henin, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
Wimbledon Championships – def. Samantha Stosur, 2-6, 3-6

2012 (2 titles)
Wimbledon Championships – def. Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland), 6-1, 5-7, 6-2
US Open – def. Victoria Azarenka (Belarus), 6-2, 2-6, 7-5

2013 (2 titles)
French Open –def. Maria Sharapova (Russia), 6-4, 6-4
US Open – Victoria Azarenka (Belarus), 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-1

2014 (1 title)
US Open – def. Carolina Wozniacki (Denmark), 6–3, 6–3

Takeaways from the 18 majors title haul; Williams' most successful run was in 2002 when she won three of four slams (except the Aussie Open). From 2002 to 2003, she won five of eight Grand Slams.

She's 18-4 all time in 22 final appearances in Grand Slams. The fortunate ones include Venus Williams (won twice over her sister at the 2001 US Open and 2008 Wimbledon Championships), Maria Sharapova (2004 Wimbledon Championships) and Samantha Stosur (2011 US Open), who all won Grand Slam titles against Serena.

The unluckiest victim is sister Venus, who did win two titles but lost in the six other meetings in Grand Slam championship rounds Other rivals of note are Sharapova (1-2 vs. Williams) and Victoria Azarenka (0-2 vs. Williams) who have losing records in championship matches against Williams in Grand Slam tournaments.

With such a dominating run, Serena Williams has earned a total of $60,881,179 as of her last Grand Slam win in New York. That figure is about equal the career earnings of Maria Sharapova ($30.8M) and Venus Williams ($30.1M) combined.

Serena Williams is now tied fourth all-time with her 18 titles tied with tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Margaret Court of Australia is the all-time leader with 24 Grand Slam titles followed by Germany's Steffi Graff (22 titles) and USA's Helen Wills Moody (19 titles). Williams is two US Open titles away for most Grand Slam in New York next to Molla Bjurstedt Mallory (Norway/USA) and Moody who has eight and seven titles, respectively.

Serena Williams were challenged by retirement talks after a slow start in the 2014 season with failures at the first three Grand Slam tournaments. Another Grand Slam title has changed the narrative as she’s now pegged to break history especially she’s nearer to her prime than retirement as seen in her recent form at the 2014 US Open.