Richard Williams, Game, Set, and Legends: The Fascinating Journey of Venus and Serena Williams

Serena Williams, Venus Williams and their father Richard Williams during training during the 2002 US Open. – Credit:TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP

The Williams sisters have made tennis history. The numbers speak for themselves: Venus and Serena have won, between them, 150 tournaments, including 30 singles grand slams and 14 doubles, as well as 5 Olympic gold medals since 1994 (only Venus is still in activity since his sister’s retirement in 2022). They also both reached world number one in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) rankings. But to understand the major mark that the sisters left in this sport, it is fundamental to look at the catalytic role of their parents: mother Oracene Price and, above all, their father Richard Williams.

The incredible trajectory of this 83-year-old man, a perfect illustration of the American dream between misery, grandeur, decadence and redemption, is the guiding principle of a fascinating documentary broadcast on Canal+ this Sunday, December 10, entitled Richard Williams, game, set and legends. Venus and Serena Williams aren’t the couple’s only children. Richard already had 6 children from a previous marriage and Oracene gave birth to three daughters. But for their father, it is only his two youngest who seem to count. In 1978, before the birth of Venus, then Serena, Richard had a revelation.

“I went from nothing to something”

He knows nothing about tennis, a sport then mainly reserved for the white and bourgeois elite. He lives in Compton, the most deprived suburb of Los Angeles. […] Read more

2023-12-09 23:30:00
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