From Compton to Centre Court: The astonishing Williams sisters
Serena Williams and her sister, Venus, have dominated tennis for more than two decades and their father, Richard, has been credited with providing a firm foundation which led to their success.
The pair, who have a combined 48 Grand Slam titles, including 14 shared women’s doubles titles, were first coached by their father on glass-strewn outdoor public courts in their home town of Compton, California, before they had even started school.
He had decided they would be professional tennis players after watching Romanian Virginia Ruzici on TV and he drew up an 85-page plan which led to their initial success – a US Open title for Serena in 1999 when she was 17, her first of 23 Grand Slams, and Venus’s first of seven grand slams at Wimbledon in 2000.
The dominance of the Williams sisters forced tennis to confront its attitudes to race and strong women. Home support was far from guaranteed in America and the most shameful episode came
in Indian Wells in 2001 when fans jeered Serena after suspecting foul play in Venus’ withdrawal ahead of a semi-final clash with her sister. Venus and Richard said they were racially abused in the stands. The sisters boycotted the event for more than a decade and gossip about the outcome of matches between them being predetermined persisted for years.
When Serena and Venus were young, Richard Williams often oversaw practice sessions which went from dawn to dusk, but Serena recently moved to scotch suggestions he was an overbearing father.
She told Harpers Bazaar: “A lot of people get this different story of sports fathers, especially tennis fathers, who are really overbearing. And that wasn’t necessarily my dad. Everyone’s like, ‘Well, how do you play tennis for so long?’ It’s because we weren’t raised in an environment where it was something that we abhorred.”