Who beat Serena Williams in her first professional match in 1995?

Serena Williams lost her first professional match in 1995 to Annie Miller.

The match took place at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada, in the first qualifying round. Williams was 14 years old and had entered the event using a wild card after age-eligibility rules prevented her from making an earlier planned debut at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland.

Miller won 6–1, 6–1 in a match that lasted less than an hour. She was an 18-year-old American ranked around No. 148 in the world at the time. Williams did not play a professional tournament in 1996, making this defeat the starting point of her recorded professional career.

A common mix-up is confusing Miller with one of Williams’s later opponents. Williams faced many prominent players early in her rise, but Annie Miller was specifically the opponent in her first professional match.