LOS ANGELES — Serena Williams never did conform to anyone's expectations. She's not about to change that now, as she inches toward the end of a career that made her one of the greatest and most influential athletes of her time — or any other.
She and her older sister Venus launched their tennis ambitions on rundown courts in Compton, where they didn't have the manicured country club lawns or teams of coaches that many of their competitors took for granted. They were two Black girls who were pushed by an insistent father on a journey that would take them to the top of the predominantly white tennis world, where elegant Venus would win seven Grand Slam singles titles and perfectionist Serena would win 23, the second-most by a male or female player. That wasn't supposed to happen. Not that way.
Serena didn't look like an athlete was supposed to look according to the narrow-minded standards that once prevailed. She wasn't slender and willowy and ponytailed. She was muscular, powerful, a fearsome server. She and Venus wore beads in their braided hair, true to their heritage.
