When Richard Williams gave his first interview to the New York Times, in 1997, he said that he hoped his daughters, Venus and Serena, would be 'out of tennis by 23, 24 years old. Actually, I prefer retirement at 19, but Venus says: "No, Daddy, 23, 24".' Once they had retired, having briefly and spectacularly dominated their sport, they should, he suggested, spend 'the first six months of the year travelling round the world, and then go full-time to college. By 26, [they] can start setting businesses up.' By 35 they could be producing grandchildren for him, new prodigies. 'When they've finished their tennis careers,' Williams added, 'I don't want a couple of gum-chewing illiterates on my hands.'
He won't have that, certainly. But Richard Williams's words are, not for the first time, beginning to look just a little like prophecy. Venus Williams is now 24, her sister Serena is 23. It is 18 months since Serena won a grand slam event and a year longer since Venus threatened to do the same. What looked likely to be a decade of dominance by the sisters is beginning to seem like little more than a three-year historical moment. [...]
| Continue Tim Adams' Observer UK article "Selling the sisters"
posted in articles on January 9, 2005 11:59 AM | t (0)
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