It is a truth universally acknowledged that Serena Williams is one of the greatest athletes of all time. But did you know she has a local connection?

Yep, it's true. Williams attended Bradenton's IMG Academy when she was about 14 years old, and trained there with another tennis great: legendary coach Nick Bollettieri.

"She spent a lot of time here connecting with Nick and being at the academy," Margie Zesinger, IMG's head of female tennis, told Fox 13 Tampa Bay earlier this week. "It's been such a remarkable career—to see how she changed the game."

Williams, whose historic career includes 23 Grand Slam titles, said this month in a cover story for Vogue that she's "evolving away from tennis toward other things that are important to me," including spending time with her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and their young daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr.

However, Williams's retirement plans are on hold for the moment: she's currently powering her way through the U.S. Open. She beat Danka Kovinic in her first round on Monday night, then stunned No. 2 world seed Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday, which means she'll move into the third round of the tournament on Friday. Tonight, she'll also play a doubles match with her older sister (and fellow tennis star) Venus.

We'll be watching it all—and we love knowing there's a little piece of Bradenton on the court with her.