Serena Williams’s year-end WTA singles ranking in 1997 was No. 99. She reached the top 100 for the first time during a breakthrough season that launched her rapid rise in professional tennis.
Williams began 1997 without a singles ranking after limited competition, but her results improved sharply late in the year. At the Chicago tournament, she defeated top-10 players Mary Pierce and Monica Seles, becoming the lowest-ranked player in the Open Era to defeat two top-10 opponents at one event at that time.
That run helped propel her into the top 100. She finished the season with a 9–5 singles record and a No. 99 year-end ranking. The result is sometimes confused with her ranking at the end of 1998, when she had climbed all the way to No. 20.
Williams’s progress accelerated in 1998. She reached the fourth round of the French Open, the third round at Wimbledon and the third round at the US Open. By 1999, she was ranked No. 4 at year’s end and won her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open.