In 1978 Richard Williams watched the finals of the French Open. He noted that the woman’s champion, Virginia Ruzici, took home a sizable check along with her trophy. Something stirred within him. Richard developed a 78-page plan to teach his daughters to become tennis champions. It was a strange plan indeed. He first had to teach himself this unfamiliar game of tennis by watching videos and taking lessons from a man nicknamed, “Old Whiskey.” Next, he decided to marry his long-time girlfriend, Oracene Price, and bring a few more girls into the world. This was accomplished when Oracene gave birth to Venus (1980) and Serena (1981) in Saginaw, Michigan. The final piece to this plan was a cross-country move to the ghetto of Compton, California.When Venus turned 4 and Serena 3, Richard began to execute his plan. He scavenged used tennis balls from posh Los Angeles country clubs. Then, each morning, he would pull up to the cracked public asphalt courts in Compton with his grocery carts full of balls and his daughters in tow. He would sweep the broken glass and drug paraphernalia off the courts before each practice. Drug dealers and gang-bangers would curiously watch the Williams’ sisters practice six days a week. As Serena later said, “If you can keep playing tennis when somebody is shooting a gun down the street, that’s concentration.”At first, Venus appeared to be the chosen one. She earned the number one ranking for 12-and-under players in Southern California. Her little sister, Serena, would not be left behind. By her own admission, she was a copycat. “What didn’t I do to copy Venus when I was younger? Her favorite color was my favorite color. She wanted to win Wimbledon, so I wanted to win Wimbledon,” Serena said. “I was never supposed to be…
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