Only in America could Serena Williams happen. Only in the US could this particular amalgam of style, determination and edge take form: a black female Jehovah’s Witness from Compton, who persevered in the face of racism, sexism, illness and family tragedy to unapologetically rewrite the history of a sport predominantly owned, played and watched by affluent white people.
The origin story nearly three decades on reads like a tall tale, a fever-dream yarn too fantastic to be true: a father idly channel‑surfing from his easy chair until coming across a tennis tournament, awestruck by the $40,000 cheque handed to the winner, eyes widening at the vision of opportunity taking shape in the faint glow of the tube. The words rang through Richard Williams’s head: “I’m going to have two kids and put them into tennis.”
