Venus and Serena Williams; Life has not been always glamorous
Wimbledon Open starts today without the participation of five-times champion, Venus Williams. Last week, the older of the Williams sisters pulled out of her favourite event due to back injury but the younger sister, Serena, will be in action to defend the title she won last year.
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The injury to Venus who won her last Wimbledon title in 2008 has also forced the sisters out of the doubles event.
Disappointed at missing out on an opportunity to add to their title collections, the sisters are readying for the release of a special documentary movie, Venus and Serena, which tells of their life story from grass to grace. It gives unprecedented access into their lives during the most intimidating year of their career.
Ever since they started playing in tennis tournaments, they've provoked strong reactions - from awe and admiration to suspicion and resentment. They've been winning championships for over a decade, pushing the limits of longevity in such a demanding sport. How long can they last?
Neither Venus nor Serena let their adversities hold them back. They drew their greatest strength from each other.
Serena Williams is lying on a massage table in a rented house in Wimbledon looking grumpy while, standing next to her, sister Venus is trying her best to make her smile. It doesn’t take long, as the karaoke machine is switched on and the most famous siblings in sport start belting out some very out-of-tune country and western.
It’s a side of the sisters not seen before but then that is the point. For 12 months, film makers Maiken Baird and Michelle Major followed the tennis stars around the world, recording their victories, their losses, their seemingly inexhaustible list of quirks and the controversy which has forever accompanied them.
The access the crew were granted in 2011 is comprehensive and starts as Serena is being wheeled in for surgery on the blood clot in her lung that almost killed her.
Serena looks vulnerable, a striking contrast from the powerful, screaming champion she is on court. She is a legend of any sport but in what seem like candid interviews she admits she grew up in Venus’s shadow.
There was once a time when the Williams sisters weren't on top of the world. ‘It was very difficult being in shadow of Venus,’ says Serena, the younger sister by two years. ‘Venus was always in the newspapers and media. I was never supposed to be good, the one who was supposed to be a good player. I was a copycat. That’s the reason I played tennis.’
Flashbacks to the girls’ early days in dangerous, run down Compton in Los Angeles remind us of that. The girls, then so sweet and a million miles from millionaires, are taught tennis by their dad Richard - the balls begged for from local country clubs, the courts covered in glass and who knows what else.
“Two black girls from Compton were probably not supposed to play tennis, let alone be any good at it,’ adds Serena. She is right, which makes their story all the more remarkable and also has always made them different.
The old clips remind us that the girls were not always the mixture of glamorous, aloof, sometimes friendly and sometimes rude that they are now. They are both sweet and smiley as children, confident of one day becoming world No 1, as Richard put them through their training regime.
He did everything to make them better and stronger. The girls had to throw baseballs, footballs, and even rackets as far as they could to help their serving action.
They skipped to improve their footwork, ran with tyres to improve their movement and tried ballet, jazz, dance and taekwondo at various points. Life then changed overnight following Venus’s first tournament win and a $12m contract from Reebok.
Venus and Serena movie trailer It all adds to the vast contrast as the cameras follow them around in 2011. They are still laughing and joking a lot — how much is for the cameras is hard to work out — and they try to come across as normal as possible. They try pole dancing as a way of keeping fit, they talk about dates they’ve been on and they show insecurities.
‘Not to win the first major was tough for me,’ admits Venus of Serena’s win at the US Open in 1999. ‘I thought as older sister I should step up. I didn’t know how to fight, it didn’t come naturally to me. It came naturally to Serena. I had to learn from her example.’
She did and then found losing impossible to deal with. ‘I used to get really upset, wouldn’t change my clothes for a couple of days. I would sit on the couch for about a week. Then I realised I hated feeling that way so now I move on immediately, within the hour. I hate feeling that upset so I refuse to do it. I feel like I haven’t done anything in my career. I know that sounds ridiculous but I have to do so much more.’
Struggling with the energy-sapping Sjogren’s syndrome during the documentary, you now see why the five-time Wimbledon champion has slid down to 34 in the latest world rankings.
Serena is the more moody and serious — ‘I hate losing more than I love winning’ — and she is quick to lash out at her faithful hitting partner Sascha Bajin on various occasions, the most amusing when he jokingly offers his services to Ana Ivanovic. But she talks candidly about her battle to keep her size down, about losing her older sister Yetunde and about her refusal to return to the tournament at Indian Wells because of racist abuse received there many years ago.
She also offers a fascinating insight into the different sides of her personality, all of which she has given names to: Psycho Serena plays matches, Summer ‘helps me out a lot, does my fashion things’, Megan is ‘mean and mischievous’ and Takwanda is ‘rough, not a Christian. She was at the US Open in 2009’.
That was when Serena threated a line judge and the documentary makes sure you don’t forget that she in particular has a nasty side. At one point John McEnroe tries to talk her into apologising for her latest rant at an umpire but the family and Serena feel they are the victims. ‘I’m tired of apologising. I just have people picking on me. I’m done,’ she says.
Emotions are laid on the table, a stark contrast to the bland press conference performance that they put on throughout the year. But what is perhaps most interesting is what is not said, particularly concerning father Richard.
During filming, a man shows up claiming to be Richard’s son, adding to an already complicated family tree, something both sisters struggle to explain. ‘That guy on the court? I don’t know who that is,’ admits Serena. ‘Why is this guy calling him dad? I’ll ask my dad though. I don’t know how many siblings there are.’
Their mother Oracene, long divorced from Richard, rolls her eyes when asked to talk about their marriage. “I had enough. I put up with a lot of stuff for a long time for the kids and I wasn’t going to do it anymore.’
Maybe it’s Richard that has partly put the sisters off marriage. ‘I’d like to think about getting married one day,’ says Venus. ‘But I want to play tennis for ever. I can’t be having kids and doing that.’
‘I’m married to me,’ adds Serena. ‘I’m very selfish and set in my ways. There are some great guys out there, wonderful people. I only date black guys. I don’t mind white guys, I just prefer black guys.’
A year on, of course, she started her relationship with new white coach Patrick Mouratoglou. But then things change fast in the Williams’ world.
Source: Sports Mail