WTA Player Awards: Player Of The Year

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL, USA - For the first three months of the year she was showing flashes of her former brilliance, and as soon as the tour moved to clay they were flashes no more - the legend was back. Serena Williams put together one of the greatest seven months in the history of women's tennis from April to October this year, winning two Grand Slam titles, Olympic gold and 48 of 50 matches - and for all of that, she is this year's WTA Player Of The Year.

By anyone else's standards, Williams' results from January to March were more than pleasing - she put together a 10-2 record, making the quarterfinals of Brisbane, the fourth round of the Australian Open and another quarterfinal at Miami. But she wanted more, and she was about to get more - much more.

From the beginning of the clay court season Williams went 48-2 the rest of the year, winning seven WTA titles - Charleston, Madrid, Wimbledon, Stanford, the Olympics, the US Open and last but not least the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul 2012. Wimbledon and the US Open marked her 14th and 15th Grand Slam titles, and her only two losses during those last seven months of the year came at Roland Garros (to Virginie Razzano in the first round) and Cincinnati (to Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals).

Williams also picked up two more WTA doubles titles, her 13th Grand Slam doubles title at Wimbledon and third Olympic gold in doubles, with Venus.

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