Serena Williams, 38, is in a league of her own. She has a record 23 Grand Slam titles to her name (more than any other professional era male or female player), she was the only woman to feature in the highest-paid 40 athletes of the decade, and now she has been named the Associated Press Female Athlete Of The Decade.

Simone Biles came in at second place after winning the AP’s Female Athlete of the Year award and a record-breaking decade of her own and swimmer Katie Ledecky was third. 

We all know why Williams is truly the GOAT and most deserving of this award, but lets recap anyway. 

She won 12 of her 23 Grand Slam titles in the past ten years, starting with the 2010 Australian Open and finishing with the Grand Slam that took her past Steffi Graf's record of 22 titles: the 2017 Australian Open that she won while approximately two months pregnant.  Williams is streaks ahead of her competition when it comes to the number of Grand Slam titles won in a decade - no other woman has won more than three titles in ten seasons. 

She also spent over three years at the top of the WTA rankings, become the oldest No.1 in WTA history and equalled Steffi Graf's record for the most consecutive weeks at the top - they both stayed No.1 for 186 weeks in a row.

Williams has reached the final of 19 of the 33 majors she has competed in and has 72 singles titles to her name with 37 of those won in the past ten years, 11 titles more than anyone else.

There is the small matter of her impressive doubles record - with her sister Venus Williams she holds 14 Grand Slam doubles titles (four of these were won in the past decade). Together they won gold at London 2012, and Serena took home the singles medal too. 

Currently, she is ranked tenth in the WTA rankings after losing the US Open final in September to 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu. 

Serena Williams, we salute you and can't wait to see you back on the court in the 2020s.