34 Reasons Why We Love Serena Williams, For Her 34th Birthday

Saturday is an important day in the sports world. No, it's not the Super Bowl. Or the Wimbledon championship match. Or the Masters. Instead, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, marks the 34th birthday of one Serena Williams -- 21-time Grand Slam winner, two-time Serena Slam crown holder and the G.O.A.T. of the women's tennis world.

Calendar-year Grand Slam or not, Williams has had a remarkable season. So to commemorate Queen Serena's special day, we put together 34 of the reasons why we love her.

Because she gave this response when a reporter asked her why she wasn’t smiling

YouTube/Serena Williams Videos

(Start at 5:30 in the video.) “Um, it’s 11:30. To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t want to be here. I just want to be in bed right now, and I have to wake up early to practice, and I don’t want to answer any of these questions, and you guys keep asking me the same questions, so it’s not really making it super enjoyable. Just being honest.”

Because she wears the best hats after winning Wimbledon

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Because she, somehow, got known-automaton Novak Djokovic to dance and be happy after they both won Wimbledon

Because she was just 21 when she notched her first Serena Slam

What is a Serena Slam, you ask? It's when Williams wins the four major tournament championships -- the Australia Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open -- in consecutive fashion.

Because she said this prior to speaking with a group of young women in Lagos, Nigeria on that same public service tour:

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"We were able to break the [mold] and win a lot of grand slams and change the face of tennis ... when tennis was very dominated by white people. It doesn't matter what your background is and where you come from, if you have dreams and goals, that's all that matters."

Because on July 7, 2012, she managed to win both the Wimbledon singles title (her fifth, because of course), and the Wimbledon doubles title, playing with her sister

A photo posted by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Aug 6, 2015 at 11:23pm PDT

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... and because she won that singles title by tallying four consecutive aces (!) in the final set

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Because she always finds the silver lining. And, often, her silver lining is a pretty damn good one

In July, when asked about her bid for the 2015 calendar-year Grand Slam, she said: “Worst case scenario, I have another Serena Slam.” That's right -- and it's her second one at that.

Mic drop.

Because even John McEnroe called her “the greatest player … that ever lived”

Eugene Gologursky via Getty Images

High praise from another great.

Because even after severely spraining her ankle in the middle of a match in 2012, she simply refused to lose

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She was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to the seriousness of the injury. After she won the match.

Because she’s inspiring even the youngest tennis fans to want to be like her

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Because she showed off how hard she’s worked in the photo shoot for her recent New York Magazine cover story

@serenawilliams looks absolutely incredible in these #NormanJeanRoy photos from our cover story! Her 16-year run is, in the words of Sports Illustrated, “one of the most sustained careers of excellence in the history of athletics.” She is on top of the world, a serious contender for the greatest athlete of her generation, and is the cover star of our fall fashion issue. More on @thecut--see link in profile.

A photo posted by New York Magazine (@nymag) on Aug 10, 2015 at 12:12pm PDT