part0008

Richard continued to teach Venus and Serena everything he knew about tennis. Soon, though, he realized that his daughters needed more coaching than he could give them. It was time to hire a professional. Richard called Rick Macci, a coach in Florida who had worked with other young champions, including Jennifer Capriati. In 1990, Capriati, age fourteen, had become the youngest player ever to reach the top ten in the world rankings.

After hearing from Richard, Macci flew to Compton. Richard told the coach he would take him and the girls to the “Compton Hills Country Club.” But what he meant was the same old beat-up courts they always used. It was a surprise to Macci, who was used to watching young players on fancy, weed-free courts. Seeing the girls play was an even bigger surprise. He was impressed by how well they played. Not only were they strong for their age, they were also fast and graceful. But he also saw that the girls would need better coaching to improve their game.

“Venus and Serena had a deep down burning desire to fight and compete at this age,” he would later write. “I believed that both Venus and Serena had champion written all over them.”

Macci believed that he could make them even better than they already were. But to do so, they would have to leave their California home and move to Florida. That’s where Macci’s tennis academy was located.

In 1991, the Williams family packed up an RV and drove across the country. The move was hard on some of the older sisters; in fact, Yetunde stayed in California to start college. But Richard and Oracene knew it was for the best.

Once in Florida, where they moved into a rented house, the girls practiced “six hours a day, six days a week for four years,” said Macci. The girls hit hundreds of serves every day.

The sisters also took lessons at a private school that was part of the tennis academy. It was tennis and school, tennis and school, every day.

Richard believed that practice and coaching, and not more competition, would make the girls better. So Venus and Serena took more than three years off from playing in tournaments. They spent that time studying and practicing tennis while nearly all other players their age were in dozens of tournaments a year. Would their lack of game experience prevent the girls from succeeding?

By the time Venus was fourteen, it was time to change that routine. She believed she was ready to turn pro—to begin playing tennis at a professional level. She wanted to start playing against the best players in the world. Some young teenagers, like Tracy Austin and Jennifer Capriati, had already become champions.

Then in 1994, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) passed a new rule saying that no one could turn pro before she was fifteen. The rule did not apply to Venus, however. She was allowed to join the WTA because she had already signed up before the rule was passed. Venus played her first pro tournament in October 1994. She lost in one of the early rounds. But she was only fourteen, after all.

All the attention Venus had received in her young life—magazine articles, TV interviews, and her professional debut at a young age—paid off quickly. Before she had won a single tournament, she signed a contract with international sports and fitness company Reebok that paid her $12 million over five years. Her unique story and potential for success made Reebok eager to see her play wearing their brand of clothes and tennis shoes. It was a shocking deal for someone so young.

The Women’s Tennis Association

Women have played in professional tennis tournaments for many decades, but it wasn’t until 1970 that the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) was founded by top pro player Billie Jean King and others.

In its first full year, 1971, the WTA organized nineteen tournaments for prize money totaling more than $300,000.

The WTA has grown into the largest sports organization for women in the world. Each year it hosts more than fifty international tournaments. The total prize money now tops more than $130 million annually. The WTA publishes the official weekly rankings of players. They also establish rules for who is eligible to play in the WTA.

Right after she turned fifteen, Serena joined the WTA and played in her first pro tournament. The German shoe and sportswear company Puma offered her a huge contract in 1998. Richard’s plan to turn Venus and Serena into champions was not yet complete, but his daughters had certainly turned around the family’s fortunes.

The Williams family bought a large mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. The estate had two full tennis courts without a crack in them. The girls left Macci’s academy and Richard took over coaching them himself again. They hired private tutors to help them with schoolwork.

On the path leading from the house to the family courts, Richard put up signs. The sisters read them as they walked toward the courts each day. One read, VENUS YOU MUST TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FUTURE . Another, directed at Serena, said, YOU MUST LEARN TO USE MORE TOP SPIN ON THE BALL .

How did such young girls, just barely teenagers, have the drive to work so hard? Certainly Richard’s coaching and encouragement played a big part. But the Williams sisters have always said that they were the ones who pushed their careers forward. Richard pointed to the road, but the hardworking and talented sisters did the difficult work on the court.