“I Don’t Like to Lose”
Serena Williams’ road to becoming the №1 Female Tennis Player
Serena Williams is one of the most recognizable names in sports. Her confidence, ambition, and achievements in tennis has led her to dominate headlines for the past decade. Becoming a world-wide sports icon was not from coincidence, genetic superiority, or stroke of luck but rather this was planned for her before she was even born.
Richard Williams, a sharecropper from Louisiana, knew that his children were destined for something greater. He had his epiphany when he watched Virginia Rucizi receive a check after winning a tennis tournament in 1980. He discusses this pivotal moment saying, “I went to my wife and said we have two kids, and we’ll become rich. They’re going to be tennis players.” From then on, very few things in the lives of his children were a matter of coincidence. He devised a 78-page plan for how he would raise them to be sport sensations. He then studied numerous books, videos, and articles about playing, or rather coaching, tennis. He started his two daughters, Venus and Serena, on the tennis courts when they were three years old. He trained the girls during grueling two-hours practices everyday, with no exceptions.
He moved the family to Compton during the 1980s. The family’s financial status could have afforded them a house in a better neighborhood but this move was part of Richard’s plan. When picking up the girls from school he would often watch as they were insulted and abused on the playground by other children. He believed that this criticism would make them stronger and that they needed to learn how to grow from it. The girls were taunted so ruthlessly that neighborhood gang members even took notice and tried to intervene on their behalf as their own father stood and watched. This harsh parenting might seem extreme, but when Serena was questioned about her father she replied, “If it wasn’t for him and Jehovah, I wouldn’t be where I am”.
Serena was often an outsider being an African American playing a predominantly white sport. While competing in tournaments during her youth, white parents would often refer to her as a “monkey” while she was on the court. The derogatory name calling got so bad that her parents eventually pulled her out of tournaments. Having her platform exercise her competitive spirit taken away from her further fueled Serena’s fire. It drove her to want to spite those parents through improving her tennis game. She wanted to be the black woman that dominated the game of tennis and pave the way for women of color behind her. That she did, at her first Grand Slam win her father jumped up and screamed, “Straight outta Compton!”
Serena began to enter professional tournaments at the age of 15. The turning point in her career was at 16, she was ranked at 304, and upset the world numbers 7 and 4 in women’s tennis. She ended out the year of ’97 205 spots higher on the women’s tennis rankings. By ’98 she was seeded at number 20. A year after earning a spot in the coveted top 20, she graduated from high school.
She won her first grand slam title at the 1999 U.S. Open at just 17 years old. Between 2002 and 2003 she won the French Open, the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open making her one of 6 women to complete a career Grand Slam. She later dubbed her holding all four major titles at the same time “The Serena Slam”. She also became one of 3 to earn a “Surface Slam” which is winning three Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces in the same year.
She further adversity in her tennis career because of how outspoken she was about feminism. Gaining so much success she felt as though a lot of due credit was taken from her because of her gender. She sparked controversy in an interview with ESPN when she said “If I were a man, I would have been have been considered the greatest ever a long time ago.” Being a professional athlete, she has been criticized for her body being too muscular. She says she can’t help but laugh when she reads these insults because her muscular body is what has allowed her to become the best player she can be. She has shown that adversity only inspires her to make herself better. She spoke of this adversity saying,
“What others marked as flaws or disadvantages about myself — my race, my gender — I embraced as fuel for my success. I never let anything or anyone define me or my potential. I controlled my future.”
At the height of her game, she sustained an injury and underwent knee surgery. Soon after her surgery, her half-sister, Yetunde Prince, was murdered in a drive-by shooting in Compton. Her ranking fell to 139. Just as she started to gain her way back to world-champion status, she made headlines after a semi-final loss when she cursed, screamed, and threatened a linesman. This resulted in a fine and a probation from the U.S. Tennis Association. In 2011, she learned that she had numerous blood clots in her lungs in the midst of recovering from a foot injury and was put into an emergency surgery. Many of her family members were worried that this was the end of Serena’s tennis career but as she recovered she would show them that she was only getting started.
Williams got back into stride claiming her first major tournament win in two years at the 2012 Wimbledon. She continued to build on this, winning multiple grand slams and earned her second “Serena Slam”. She then had 20 grand slam titles and was the oldest grand slam singles champion. Serena spoke of this saying,
“When I was a little girl, in California, my mother and father wanted me to play tennis and now here I am, with 20 Grand Slam titles”
In 2017, she won the Australian Open Grand Slam while being eight weeks pregnant. Not only did she win this tournament while pregnant, but she also won it at 35 years old. Serena Williams was not only able to start her winning career at 17 but she has been able to continue playing and winning for 18 more years. Becoming one of the greatest athletes in the world was always Serena’s dream, she exemplifies that in order to win, you cannot be afraid to lose.
“I hate to lose, but losing has brought me to here today. The only reason I am who I am is because of my losses. Some of them are extremely painful, but I wouldn’t take any of them away”
