Williams sisters, Sharapova share a connection
Tennis stars were molded by same coach
There is no secret that three of the most popular women’s seeds at Wimbledon – ninth-seeded Venus Williams, No. 24 seed Maria Sharapova and No. 25 seed Serena Williams – would hardly classify themselves as besties.
All immensely successful, they display very different approaches and outlooks on life, which has kept things interesting for fans and explains why the sisters haven’t bonded as colleagues with Maria.
Nevertheless, one similar fact about the three is indisputable: For more than a decade the 30-something stars have dominated women’s tennis headlines on and off the court. No other female players, even those who have become Grand Slam champions in this era, have cemented themselves into the fame game alongside the trio.
Another connection they surprisingly share is that during their formative years all three spent quality time being molded into future champions by Nick Bollettieri. Rightly considered one of the most influential coaches of the Open era, Bollettieri introduced the tennis academy concept to the game.
Bollettieri, 86, is the subject of a new Showtime documentary “Love Means
Zero,” in which he’s portrayed in an honest and raw manner that doesn’t always flatter, but has his full endorsement.
As the documentary emphasizes, Bollettieri was far more interested in raising his personal profile by creating champions than in making money. And it didn’t take him very long to see that Serena, Venus and Maria were starstudded students. The Williams sisters trained at the academy in Bradenton, Fla., on an occasional basis, while Sharapova joined the Bollettieri Academy full-time at 9.
“My relationship with Venus, Serena and Maria, holy mackerel, they were different,” said Bollettieri, by phone in a recent interview. “Maria Sharapova, you had to kill her to beat her. In her mind nothing was ever over.
“Serena and Venus were taught by their daddy to control play, go for it, and that’s how they did it,” he said. Serena and Venus started working with the academy at around 9 and 10 respectively. “Their daddy taught them to run for every single ball and the girls would sometimes say, ‘Daddy, the ball is way out,’ and he would say, ‘Serena, Venus, there is no ball out.”’
All three were shown the path to tennis by their fathers. That said, Richard Williams had a very different idea of how to manufacture a champion to Yuri Sharapov.
“When Richard brought the girls to the academy, he told me they were going to be the next Michael Jordan,” Bollettieri said. “I said, ‘Richard, what do you want me to work on?’ He said, ‘Mr. Bollettieri, if I had to tell you what to work on I wouldn’t be here, so I’m going to go have my free breakfast,” and he would leave. He just didn’t want them playing sets or matches until they were 14years-old. And when the girls stepped off the tennis court, they were not allowed to talk about tennis at all. It was kept on the tennis court.”