King of the courts
❚■You don’t have to be a tennis fan to appreciate the story of the Williams sisters, who grew up in Compton and became two of the greatest tennis players of all time. You don’t even have to be a sports fan to like this. You merely have to be a fan of perseverance, hard work and a never-cryuncle approach to life.
King Richard. Easy to dislike a king and, in this case, Richard Williams, the father of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams. However, it may be time to reconsider.
“King Richard” was the first movie I’ve seen in 20 months. Not the first movie-movie because since COVID, most of us have seen a million. First movie inside a theater movie. First movie at Maya Cinemas, and “King Richard” was a good movie with which to start.
You don’t have to be a tennis fan to appreciate the story of the Williams sisters, who grew up in Compton and became two of the greatest tennis players of all time. You don’t even have to be a sports fan to like this. You merely have to be a fan of perseverance, hard work and a never-cry-uncle approach to life.
The chances of sisters becoming two of the greatest players of all time is not big, but throw in growing up in Compton and small becomes infinitesimal.
Serena won 39 Grand Slams — 23 in singles, 14 in doubles, and two in mixed — and has won almost $100 million in prize money.
Venus has won 24 slams, including seven single titles, 14 double titles and two mixed double titles and almost $50 million in prize money.
I’m not sure they get enough credit. The Williams sisters, and you can include Richard and their mother, Oracene Price, had stood outside the traditional tennis circles. Outside and apart. Like Frank Sinatra, they’ve done it their way.
“Their way” included, and this was their parents’ idea, not advancing through the junior ranks. Not playing every junior tournament because Richard thought, and the movie details this, that the junior tennis world was rife with psycho parents who rather than develop players burned them out.
As much as raising “future champions” could be normalized, Richard and Oracene wanted their kids to be terrific students (both speak multiple languages) and enjoy playing as much as high-level tennis can be enjoyed.
Being a Black athlete in a white sport — and until the last 10 or 15 years, there was no whiter sport than tennis unless you include golf and curling — has not been easy. For years, country clubs and tennis clubs did not welcome people of color, and tennis requires expert coaching (and money to pay for the lessons, equipment and travel) that may not be available in public park settings.
Venus and Serena are also big, strong and obviously intelligent, not prone to suffer either criticism that they deem unfair or tolerate the company of people they might see as fools.
Critics say that Serena hasn’t always been easy to cozy up to and point to the finals of the U.S. Open in 2018 against Naomi Osaka when she bullied and made mincemeat of Carlos Ramos, the chair umpire, over a coaching violation and then threw a major temper tantrum on her way to losing to a distraught Osaka, who pretty much worshipped her.
Over the course of her 20-year career, she’s yelled at a few lines people and been outspoken, but when you consider the high-pressure bubble in which professional tennis players operate, both Venus and Serena
have been exemplary sports and citizens. They have been a credit to the game and pushed the limits on what women can do on a tennis court, starting with a 120mph serve.
Their fellow players generally like and admire both of them, especially Serena, which is probably a more precise barometer of character than from an outsider.
The movie goes into this, mostly from their father’s perspective (their mother is an unsung hero, a calming force to her husband’s headstrong, unshakable “plan” for their children).
Richard has been criticized for being controlling, a grandstander and somewhat of a huckster, but for whatever part he had in raising Venus and Serena, and with no tennis background, turning them into tennis legends, he deserves credit.
This movie is worth seeing because it shows how tough it is to be a parent (times two in Compton) and what it means to believe in something, stay the course and finally hit it out of the park, or in this case, bounce the overhead over the fence.
If you have been inclined to judge this family, seeing the world from their sneakers may change your mind. It did mine.
“King Richard” is in theaters and available on HBO Max.