WAINAO N°24 - THE GOOD FATHER
WHY NOW? BECAUSE IF YOU TAKE THE SAME ROAD AS EVERYONE ELSE, YOU WILL GET TO THE SAME PLACE AS EVERYONE ELSE. RICHARD SAW SOMETHING THAT OTHERS COULDN'T SEE, SO HE DID IT HIS WAY. The williams family story is one of the most powerful in the history of sport, not only tennis.
They came from an incredibly tough environnement and they reached the highest level of success in their sport.
The key to their success was their father will and detemination.
Some will say that he was blessed to have two gifted daughters.
Maybe but for us, even if it sounds crazy, he would have succeed with any daughter with two legs and two arms.
LEGEND 1
“Behind each passing shots along the line of a champion……………………. is often hidden the dreams and scars of a father “
LEGEND 2
" A father never prepare his kids for the obstacles they will have to face....but for the ones HE had to face .”
THAT DAY
Saturday, 25 January, 2003: Serena WILLIAMS and her sister Venus, met in the Australian open finals and became the first tennis players in the open era to contest four consecutive finals at the majors.
Richard Williams Jr. is an American tennis coach, he was born in 1942 , and father of Venus and Serena Williams. In 1979 Williams met Oracene Price, who had three daughters by her late husband. Together they had a daughter Venus, who was born on June 17, 1980, and a daughter Serena born on September 26, 1981. They married in 1980 and settled in Compton.
Richard decided his future daughters would be tennis professionals when he saw a tournament on TV where the winner collected $40,000.” Williams says that he wrote up a 78-page plan, and started giving lessons to Venus and Serena when they were four and a half, and began taking them to the public tennis courts. . He taught himself how to play, buying used tennis balls for 10 cents, putting rackets on layaway, and regularly getting into fistfights with gang members in order to use the tennis courts. Compton is a suburb of Los Angeles very tough with a lot of criminality. Some of the places where they'd practice were in rough neighborhoods. Richard Williams, was known for being tough with his daughters. He, himself, had a very tough childhood. In his book, Richard details his experience of being beaten by members of the Ku Klux Klan while his father looked on. there was nothing like that with his daughters that he loved, he was just really demanding.
Later the family moved from Compton to West Palm Beach, Florida. The daughters attended the tennis academy of Rick Macci, but it didn't last because the coach was not on the same page as mr Williams, so he decied to keep in charge of the training.
The junior circuit is accepted as the conventional path to tennis stardom, but Richard wanted to protect his daughters from situations that could be negative (racial hositlity too) .and decided to skip that part. He's been criticased for that but Venus results will prove everybody wrong.
Venus Williams entered the top 10 in 1998 winning her fisrt wta title. In 2000, Williams won 35 consecutive singles matches and six tournaments. She took the world No. 1 position for the first time on February 25, Williams was the first African-American woman ever to hold the ranking.She's been ranked world No. 1 on three occasions; the first African American woman to do so in the Open Era, and the second all time since Althea Gibson. She's credited for bringing a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour.Venus has won seven Grand Slamsingles titles and four Olympic gold medals,. She is the only tennis player to have won a medal at four Olympic Games.
And although everybody was prasing his daughter for her accomplishments , Richard Williams said that her sister SERENA, will be even better....and once again , he was right!
Serena WTA ranked her world No. 1 in singles on many occasions since 2002. She reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time on July 8, 2002
Williams holds the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined among active players. She is the most recent female player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously (2002–03 and 2014–15) and the third player to achieve this twice, after Rod Laver and Graf.
Saturday, 25 January, 2003: Serena WILLIAMS and her sister Venus, met in the Australian open finals and became the first tennis players in the open era to contest four consecutive finals at the majors ( it started with the 2002 French Open). Serena defeated her older sister to become the sixth woman in the Open Era to complete a career Grand Slam, and also became the fifth woman to hold all Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously. The Williams sisters won their sixth Grand Slam doubles title together at this event.
However , at the end of the day Venus and Serena are regarded by players and sports writers as two of the greatest female tennis players of all time.
...adn Richard WILLIAMS can say...."I TOLD YOU" !
To know more about the subject:
Williams, Richard; Davis, Bart (2017). Black and White: The Way I See It. Simon and Schuster.
Crosley, Hillary (May 18, 2013). "Intimate Look at the Williams Sisters". TheRoot.com. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
Jago, Richard (July 4, 2009). "Richard Williams leaves Venus and Serena to take centre stage". The Guardian. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
Edmondson, Jacqueline (January 1, 2005). Venus and Serena Williams: A Biography. Greenwood Publishing Group
Peyser, Marc; Samuels, Allison (August 24, 1998). "Venus And Serena Against The World". Newsweek. Retrieved April 19, 2009
Australian Open 2017: Serena Williams beats Venus Williams to set Grand Slam record". BBC Sport. January 28, 2017. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
The Power of Serena Williams". New York Times. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
Caple, Jim (June 7, 2013). "New Heights For Serena Williams". ESPN. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
Eboda, Michael (September 7, 2016). "Why Serena Williams is the greatest sportsperson ever | Michael Eboda". The Guardian. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
