Virginia Ruzici wins the French Open women's singles championship
and receives a check for 100,000 francs (almost $22,000). Entrepreneur Richard
Williams, father of Yetunde, Isha, and Lyndrea, watches the scene on television.
He vows that any future children he may have with wife Oracene, a nurse, will
play
tennis.
June 17, 1980
Venus Ebone Starr Williams is born in Lynwood, Calif.
September 26, 1981
Serena Williams is born in Saginaw,
Mich.
1984
Richard loads four-year-old Venus, six rackets and seven milk crates full
of tennis balls into his Volkswagen van and travels to the public courts in
Watts and Compton, where he gives his daughter lessons. "It's a radical
neighborhood," Richard says of the area around East Compton Park. "A
lot of dope is sold. We play on two courts -- that's all there is --and they
look like trash, they're so
slippery."
1985
Serena joins Richard and Venus in their tennis
sessions.
1988
John McEnroe and Pete Sampras watch Venus as she hits with teaching pro
Paul Cohen at a private court in Brentwood. Later, the two pros hit with Venus.
Richard tells Venus that McEnroe took it easy on her, but she doesn't believe
him. "She told me she thought she could have beaten him," Richard
says. Meanwhile, Richard grows so disgusted with the maniacal parents in the
junior tennis circuit he tries to make Venus quit the game, without
success.
1989
Despite showing promise on the track, Venus decides to focus on tennis.
She had gone undefeated in 19 meets, both as a sprinter and as a middle-distance
runner, having clocked a 5:29 mile the year
before.
July 3, 1990
The New York Times features Venus in a piece headlined:
"Status: Undefeated. Future: Rosy. Age: 10." Nine months later, she
appears in a front-page Times story, in which the 10-year-old prodigy
named after the second planet from the sun is said to want to be an
astronaut.
May 1991
Don King shows up in Compton and takes the Williams family to lunch at
a Los Angeles soul-food restaurant. In July, the sisters wear white polo shirts
with the King Productions logo embroidered on their sleeves while competing in
the Southern California Tennis Association sectional championships. But they do
not sign with the big-haired
promoter.
September 1991
Richard pulls Venus, who is ranked No. 1 among Southern California girls 12-and-under, and Serena, ranked No. 1 in the 10-and-under division, off the state's junior tennis circuit, moves the family to Florida and enrolls his daughters in Rick Macci's Delray Beach, Fla., tennis academy. Macci would coach the sisters until July 1995. "Six hours a day, six days a week for four years," says Macci of their practice schedule under his tutelage.
April 5, 1992
Venus and Serena play against each other in an exhibition doubles
match at the Family Circle Magazine Cup in Hilton Head, S.C. Serena teams with
Billie Jean King to defeat Venus and Rosie Casals, 6-2. King says the girls
possess aggressiveness and a volleying aptitude beyond their years. "The
important thing is that they go slowly and do the right thing," she says.
"That's what makes
champions."
January 1, 1994
In the year of her 14th birthday, Venus becomes eligible to
play in professional
tournaments.
October 31, 1994
Venus wins her first pro match, defeating Shaun Stafford at
the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland. It is the first time she has played
non-exhibition tennis in public in three years. Venus participates in the event
to avoid a rule that will take effect the following year limiting girls under 18
who turn pro to a handful of tour events. Venus faces Arantxa Sanchez Vicario,
the No. 2 player in the world, in her next match. Venus races out to a 6-3, 3-1
lead but then folds as Sanchez Vicario wins 11 consecutive games. In an
interview after the match, Venus is asked how the loss compares with previous
defeats. She answers bemusedly that she has never before lost a match.
May 22, 1995
Reebok announces it has signed Venus to a five-year, $12 million
deal. Thus far, Venus has played in one pro
tournament.
March 1997
After Martina Hingis defeats Venus in straight sets in the third
round of the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne, Fla., a tennis official hands
Hingis one of the beads that had fallen from Williams's braids. Hingis flings
the bead into the crowd at her press conference and says with a giggle, "I
have a present for you. One of Venus's pearls." Venus wears 1,800
"pearls" in her hair, which take 10 hours to put in. She will stop
playing with in beads three years
later.
June 28, 1997
In an inauspicious debut at Wimbledon, Venus loses to No. 91
Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland in the first round. Venus falls apart after
leading 6-4, 2-0, repeatedly hitting to Grzybowska's laser backhand. Headlines
the next day read, VENUS OUT OF ORBIT! and VENUS HAS
TUMBLED BACK TO EARTH. Williams, nonplussed, says, "It's my first
Wimbledon. There will be many
more."
September 7, 1997
Venus, the first unseeded U.S. Open women's finalist in the
open era, loses the championship to Martina Hingis, 6-0, 6-4. On the way there,
Venus finds herself in the center of controversy. During her semifinal match,
opponent Irina Spirlea intentionally bumps her during a changeover. Afterward,
Richard fires back, calling the Romanian "a big, ugly, tall, white
turkey" and claiming Spirlea had used a racial
epithet.
October 24, 1997
Venus departs for a 10-day trip to Russia to play in the
Ladies Kremlin Cup, and during her stay she keeps an online diary for the WTA's
Web site. Venus is an avowed Russo-phile; she speaks Russian and enjoys studying
Russian history. A sample entry: "I have seen a lot of Russia. The place is
replete with history that is very interesting. The art here is wonderful also,
and the people are very talented. It is great that they are finally being given
the chance to live a more free life, with the fall of
Communism."
