Williams+Sisters

=**The Williams Sisters** =



Serena and Venus Williams are two professional African-American tennis players that came into the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) during the 1980s. They have both been ranked No.1 in the world and have gained countless amounts of titles in women’s singles and doubles. Their talents are not limited to tennis. The sisters are also successful entrepreneurs, having created their own clothing lines and books.

**Table of Contents**

 * The Start of Their Careers
 * Serena's Beginning Success
 * The Rise of Venus
 * Grand Slams and Olympic Medals
 * Sister Rivalry

Venus and Serena Williams grew up in Compton, California. Venus, the elder of the two, was born June 17, 1980, and Serena was born September 26, 1981. Their father, Richard Williams, is the son of a Louisiana share cropper and their mother Oracene, or Brandi, Williams was a nurse. The girls are the youngest of five daughters. All of the daughters played tennis, but Serena and Venus showed the most potential. Because of this, Richard put all his focus in them.
 * The Start of Their Careers**[[image:http://bsmith101.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/serena-venus-willi_1426128c1.jpg width="223" height="151" align="right"]]

The girls started winning tournaments as early as 10 years old. By that age, Venus had already won many titles in the Southern California junior tennis circuit. She soon became the No.1 player in California for her age group. The family decided to move to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida after accepting scholarships at a tennis academy directed by Coach Rick Macci, who worked with other tennis stars like Jennifer Capriati and famous coaches like Nick Bolletieri. But soon, Richard decided to take over the girls’ coaching. He pulled them from the junior tennis circuit completely and encouraged them to concentrate on their studies.

In October of 1995, Serena played in her first professional event in Vanier, Quebec. She did not have much success playing individually until 1997. That year, her rank jumped from No. 453 to No. 304. The rise did not stop. After beating Mary Pierce and Monica Seles at the Ameritech Cup in Chicago, she soon became No. 100 in the world. She then went on to win a mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in 1998, ranking at No. 21. Serena won her first WTA tour victory when she was seventeen at the Open Gaz de France in Paris. That was the start of a very successful season for her, winning five other titles playing 48 matches. A major historic victory for her was when she defeated Martina Hingis in the finals of the US. That win made her the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Althea Gibson, who won five Grand Slam events in the late 1950s.
 * Serena****’s Beginning Success**

Venus’ career didn’t really start until the 1997 US Open. In that Open, she became the first unseeded woman to ever reach the tournament’s final since Gibson in 1957 and 1958. Although she ended up losing to Hingis, her ranking drastically shot up from No. 66 to No. 25 in just one day. Venus won her first WTA singles title at the IGA Tennis Classic in 1998. She later defeated Anna Kournikova and Hingis at another tournament, the Lipton International. That victory placed her in the top 10. By the end of the year Venus had reached the quarter finals of Wimbledon and the French Open, and she had also fought to the semifinals of the U.S. Open. The rising star was only missing one thing: a Grand Slam victory. It was her younger sister, Serena, who reached this goal first when she won the U.S. Open in 1999. This was not a surprise as their father had once claimed that Serena was the better player of the two.
 * The Rise of** **Venus**

In 2000, Venus and Serena both had a slow start due to injuries. Their father even announced that Venus was considering retiring. But that feeling did not last for long. After a couple of months, Venus began on a winning streak that led her all the way to receiving her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon. She also took the Wimbledon doubles title easily with her sister. Later that year, her and Serena proudly represented the United States at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, along with Lindsey Davenport and Monica Seles. There, Venus became the only other woman besides Helen Wills Moody in 1924 to win gold in both singles and doubles. In 2001, Venus defended her Wimbledon title by beating Belgian player Justine Henin in the finals. The win gave Venus her second consecutive Grand Slam title, which made her become the first woman since Hingis in 1997 to win two Grand Slam titles in one year. Today, Venus has won a total of twenty Grand Slam titles: seven in singles and thirteen in doubles. She is still hungry for more.
 * Grand Slams and Olympic Medals**

At the start of their careers, Venus always seemed to maintain the wins over her little sister. The first time Serena beat her was in the finals of a tournament in Munich, Germany. It was in the year 1999, a time where both of them were ranked in the top five. However, the roles started to change later in the years. The sisters met in four consecutive Grand Slam finals and //Serena// came out with the victories each time. The tables soon changed again when Venus defeated her sister at Wimbledon in 2008, but Serena came back and beat Venus at the US Open, which led to her becoming No.1 in the world. There is no doubt that these sisters have a competition that is incredibly entertaining and intriguing. But even so, they have remained very close throughout their journeys. In fact, Serena joined Venus at the Art Institute of Florida to study fashion design. Since then, she has laun ched a clothing line called Aneres, along with another line partnered with Puma and Nike. Venus has launched her own line as w ell, called EleVen and is the CEO of her own interior design firm.
 * Sister Rivalry**


 * The Analysis**

The Williams sisters are strong women that have made tremendous impacts on women’s tennis today. They are often honored for their sportsmanship and work outside of tennis. These women have changed the hitting style in women’s tennis, increased popularity and viewership, helped attract more African-Americans into the sport and brought on the equality of prize money. Through these impacts, it is clear that the sisters have made a change in our world today.

The speeds in women’s tennis have come a long way over the years. The average serve speed of a top female player’s serve has gone from 20 mph, to 80-90mph and now 100-110 mph. Venus holds the record for the fastest serve ever hit by a women player; a whopping 127.4 mph. These speeds are like night and day compared to just 20 years ago when top players like Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova were serving at speeds of 80-90 mph. The game has really evolved to a much more athletic level. Not only can you see this through the Williams sisters’ power, but also in the rise of college tennis. Before the 1990s, it was very common for a top college player to join the professional tours or Grand Slams and immediately become successful. However, today’s top college players have difficulty gaining much success, if any, in those circumstances. It is clear that tennis has risen to new heights and is becoming more competitive than ever before.

Many people believe the Williams sisters’ power and style of play is what triggered the dramatic rise in popularity of women’s tennis. The 2009 US Open was watched by more fans on-site, on television, and online than any other year before. The Open had an attendance record of 721,059 fans compared to 2008’s record 720,227 fans. The number of USOpen.org visitors in more than 200 countries increased by 47 percent. The total amount of visits was 63 million, topping the previous year’s 39 million. The 2010 US Open Series has also had more viewers in all its history. The finals between Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova at the Western and Southern Open was the second most watched US Open match in ESPN2’s history. This goes to show how much women’s tennis has grown in popularity. Today, Venus and Serena Williams are believed to be the most watched players on the women’s tennis circuit. They have definitely raised public awareness and have changed the game to another level of power and athleticism.

Like golf, tennis has been known for being part of exclusive clubs for the wealthy white men. African Americans were often excluded from joining. However, it wasn’t too long before an all-black American Tennis Association (ATA) was formed. By the 1930s, blacks had more than 100 private tennis and golf country clubs. American tennis player Arthur Ashe made many attempts to get the black community more involved in the sport. One of the ways he did this was through his collaboration with Bollettieri. The Ashe-Bollettieri “Cities” Tennis Program (ABC) taught more than 10,000 children how to play tennis and the importance of staying in school. Many from the program went off to college with an academic and/or athletic scholarship. Since the Williams sisters, more blacks are on the courts than ever before. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has also helped tremendously by investing $35 million for a “Plan of Growth”, to make the game more accessible. Out of the 202,000 people that participated in these programs in 1998, 28 percent of them were blacks.

Before the Williams’ sisters, women’s tennis was often seen as second class to men’s tennis, even when some of the female players were just as equally qualified. The most evident difference between the men and women was the amount of prize money awarded. Tennis player Billie Jean King was one of the first to protest for a change. In 2005, the Williams sisters did the same when they met with officials to argue for equal pay. Unfortunately at the time, they were rejected. It wasn’t until an essay was published in the //Times//, in whichthe Williams sisters accused Wimbledon of being on the “wrong side of history”, that things soon began to change. The British Prime Minister and members of Parliament endorsed the Williams’ arguments, along with the WTA and the //United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization// (UNESCO), who teamed up to promote gender equality in sports. Soon enough, Wimbledon and the French Open gave in and announced that they would award equal prize money to both men and women. Venus was the first person to benefit from the new change when she won Wimbledon in 2007 and was given the same amount of money as Roger Federer.


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