Venus was introduced to tennis by her father on the public courts in Los Angeles, not far from the family's home in Compton. Richard Williams, a former sharecropper from Louisiana, used what he'd gleaned from tennis books and videos to instruct his girls on the different aspects of the game.
The fact that the family had relocated to Compton was no accident. With its high rate of gang activity, Richard Williams had wanted to expose his daughters to the ugly possibilities of life "if they did not work hard and get an education."
In this setting, on courts that were riddled with potholes and sometimes missing nets, Venus and Serena cut their teeth on the game of tennis and the requirements for persevering in a tough climate.
By the age of ten, Venus Williams' serve topped 100 MPH, a weapon she used to go 63-0 on the United States Tennis Association junior tour. On October 31, 1994, Venus turned pro, something she proved she was more than ready for when, in her first match, she beat 50-seeded Shaun Stafford at the Bank of the West Classic in California.
It was a momentous occasion for the Williams family, Richard in particular, who wasn't afraid to let the tennis world know that his girls were going to change the game. "That's one for the ghetto!" he shouted out at the press conference following Venus' victory
In 1997, Venus became the first unseeded U.S. Open women's finalist in the Open era. She lost to Martina Hingis. In 2000, Williams won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, paving the way for her to ink a $40 million contract with Reebok. Venus then went out and defended her titles in 2001.
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