Life and Works of Venus and Serena Williams

Black History Month is filled with many people representing them. In Tennis there are two sisters that are very important like Serena and Venus Williams. They are a great influence.

Serena Williams was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan. She is the youngest of her family having two older sisters. They first started there passion in tennis when they were about 4 years old. Their father was determined to make at least one of his daughters a tennis superstar. When Serena was four and a half, she won her first tournament, and she entered 49 tournaments by the age of 10, winning 46 of them. Her father was trying to prevent them from facing racism so he stopped them from going into junior tournements. She succeeded Venus as the number-one player in southern California's highly competitive age-12-and-under rankings. In September of 1995 she became a proffesional player, but because of her age, she had to participate in non-WTA events at first.

Venus Williams was born on June 17, 1980 in Lynwood, CA. When There father would take all five of his daughters two the public courts, the two sisters showed the most talent. Venus also says that she learned from watching the games on television. To become a better player she copied there footwork, she would notice that the best player would find the other players weakness like their backhand, volley, or even forehands. Also the players would hit it in the spots that they were weaker in than others. One of her favorite things to do also is to design clothes. She attended the Art Institute of Florida for design. Venus Williams became a professional on October 31, 1994.

Serena Williams has many accomplishments. One of her most famous accomplishments is the launch of her clothing line called
“Aneres”. She has won eight Grand Slam singles titles and an Olympic gold medal in women's doubles. She is the last player, to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles together. In 2005, Tennis magazine ranked her as the 17th-best player of the preceding forty years. Serena Williams has played in seven Australian Opens. She has won two of them. One of them she won against her sister, Venus Williams in 2003 and the other one against Lindsay Davenport in 2005. When she won the Australian Open she became the ninth woman ever to win all four Grand Slams events. Her accomplishments were named the Serena Slam. Serena has also played in seven U.S. Opens. Five of them she lost and two of them she won. In 1999, Serena won her Grand Slam tournament when she became U.S. Open champion, becoming the first the first African American woman to win a Grand Slam since Althea Gibson in 1958. Serena has participated in seven Wimbledon tournaments and has won two in her career.

Venus Williams also has many accomplishments. In 1997 her ranking went from 211 to 64 by a years end. In 1998 she wins the first singles title at IGA Tennis Classic, and she also defeats Patty Schnyder and wins the Grand Slam Cup. Later on in 1999, the two girls team up together to win in a doubles tournament at the French Open, and ranked among top 10 in women’s tennis along with her sister. Venus also won gold at 2000 Sydney Olympics for both singles and doubles in women's tennis. She was champion at Wimbledon in 2000, 2001, and 2005, and champion at US Open in 2000 and 2001.Venus Williams is also a successful businesswoman. What is also interesting is that this year she has been nominated for the 2007 Athlete of the Year. In 1998 Venus Williams had the fastest serve in WTA history reaching 128 mph. Today she sposors for American Express, Avon, and Reebok. These are only some of her great deeds.

In conclusion they are very influential in Black History Month because they showed that of you put your mind to something you may accomplish what you want. I like them because I like the way they were coached by there father who really wanted them to keep going.