It doesn’t really matter that Serena lost in the semi-finals of the U.S. Open and fell short of accomplishing the nearly impossible feat of winning all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same year. She’s a champion, and so is her sister Venus, definitely for their awesomeness on the tennis court, and most especially for showing us what dedication and hard work can accomplish.
Nothing was handed to these two sisters from Compton, who’ve dominated women’s tennis for nearly 20 years. In a sport usually associated in the U.S. with exclusive country clubs, Venus and Serena trained with their dad on cracked, public courts in a predominantly African-American city in southern California, practicing at 6 a.m. before school and again after school until dinner, gun fire popping in the background, their father fighting off gangs, and eventually gang members surrounding their court for protection. Not exactly the All England Club.
A few nights ago on center court at Arthur Ashe Stadium, named for the first African-American man to win a Grand Slam (the top four tennis tournaments in the world, played in Australia, France, England and the U.S.), over 23,000 people were transfixed by the sisters slugging it out against each other. Family tennis anyone?
When Venus and Serena first burst onto the professional tennis scene, lots of people had unkind words. They didn’t fit in, they were tall and strong, they hit hard, they had big serves, and they were black. People said they were too self-confident, they had power and nothing else, their father made a huge mistake training them himself for so long, and on and on. But Venus and Serena persevered, training hard, staying focused, and winning, and in the process, won over all of our hearts too.
They have shown us what we like to think is still true about this country, even as the divide between rich and poor widens and a class society takes hold and so much racial discrimination persists that we need a movement called Black Lives Matter. These two women have demonstrated that if you work really hard, if you keep fighting for your dream, if you stay determined and confident despite criticism and racial slurs, and if you’re courageous enough, you will indeed go far.
As Serena said to a group of girls in Nigeria, “It doesn’t matter what your background is and where you come from, if you have dreams and goals, that’s all that matters.” (reported by Benjamin F. Chavis, Atlanta Voice, June 12, 2015).
And that’s what their greatest legacy is — the inspiration they give to people all over the world — to dream big, then work incredibly hard to get there. Thank you Venus and Serena!
Do you look up to the Williams sisters too? Who’s inspiring to you?