Richard Williams (tennis)

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Richard Williams (born c. 1951) is an American tennis coach. He is best known for being the father of Serena and Venus Williams ]], both former World No.1 tennis players and multi-grand slam winners.

[edit] Biography

Richard Williams met his wife, Oracene, as both were youngsters. In 1979 the couple got married and lived in Lansing, Michigan. Oracene had a total of five daughters: three daughters with her former husband Yusef Rasheed as well as Venus and Serena with Richard Williams. Richard Williams also has children with his former wife, such as Richard Williams Jr.

Richard and Oracene moved west, settling in the infamous Los Angeles Compton area. Richard Williams would later make public his pride in having lived in Compton.

Richard Williams is said to have dreamed of a better future for his five daughters, and wanted at least one of them to succeed in sports. He began to take his daughters to Compton public tennis courts, where, according to his daughters' own accounts, they would have to dodge bullets while playing tennis.

Williams soon got his daughters into California tennis tournaments. But the Williamses reportedly suffered racism while competing in California. That experience may have prompted some of the outspoken comments Williams would later on make to the media.

As 2000 began, Venus Williams was recovering from tendinitis on both wrists. She was forced to stay out of the women's tennis tour for almost half of the year. According to Venus Williams, she and her father spent most of their time watching Zorro on television at home.

Richard and Venus Williams went back on the road, flying to France for that year's French Open. Soon after, they went to England for the Wimbledon competition.

During that tournament, Richard Williams became one of the most seen Wimbledon fans, sporting signs in order to get the television camera's attention, and granting many interviews to reporters. One of the signs he displayed said I need a Coke. Whether the Coca Cola company actually paid him to advertise their brand product or not is unknown. Another sign, which he displayed after Venus defeated Lindsay Davenport in the finals to win her first grand slam title, read It's Venus' party and no one was invited!. After his daughter's victory over Davenport, Williams jumped over the NBC broadcasting booth, catching Chris Evert by surprise and performing a triumphant dance. Evert said that the broadcasters "thought the roof was coming down". He displayed his pride in having lived in Compton by shouting Straight out of Compton! after the match was over.

On March 26, 2001, Venus and Serena Williams experienced problems with the organizers, referees and some fans at the Indian Wells, California tennis tournament. Richard Williams told CNN that the boos by a small group of fans towards his daughters were motivated by racism. These comments proved controversial, and such outlets as Sports Illustrated spoke about them for many months after he declared them. Among the controversial comments he made were the following:

The white people at Indian Wells, what they've been wanting to say all along to us finally came out: "Nigger, stay away from here, we don't want you here"
It's the worst act of prejudice I've seen since they killed Martin Luther King
That's the hardest time in the world I've ever had
I'll never go to Indian Wells again, because I believe that guy would skin me alive
The girls (not the Williams sisters) that play professional tennis are always saying something about me. The only way those girls get their names in the paper, they would have to say something about me. Otherwise, no one would write about them..

Richard Williams as well as Venus and Serena Williams were at the time suspected by the public in general of fixing their games whenever they had to play against each other. In other words, the public thought that the Williams sisters had worked a deal in which one of the sisters would win one match between them, and then the other would win the next one. Such suspicions, however, have never been proven to be based on fact.

On September 14, 2003, Richard Williams suffered tragedy, as his step-daughter, Yetunde Price, was shot to death while riding in a car with her boyfriend in Compton.