Williams has never been big on admitting defeat however, a hallmark of her early days under the tutelage of father Richard Williams, who drummed into his daughters the maxim that “the ball is never out” — an exhortation to chase down every ball.
When Williams does finally call it quits, tennis will bid farewell to one of the greatest players in its history. And even though advances in sports science are increasingly stretching the boundaries of longevity for modern athletes, few players today are likely to match her achievement of a professional career that has spanned four different decades.
By now the broad brushstrokes of Williams career are part of tennis lore: the upbringing in the gritty Los Angeles suburb of Compton, the rivalry with younger sister Serena, who has 23 Grand Slam titles to Venus’s seven, the successful comeback after being diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease whose symptoms include joint pain and fatigue.
“I’ve had great moments, I’ve been on the top, I’ve been on the bottom, I’ve been down and out – I’ve done it all and I’ve been equally as happy during all of it,” Williams says.
The final years of Williams career have coincided with the emergence of a young crop of African-American tennis players, including Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Taylor Townsend, and Coco Gauff.
Former US professional turned broadcaster Pam Shriver believes Williams has helped African-American women “to feel there’s a pathway for them to the top of the tennis world.”
In recent weeks, Williams has spoken out about the tumultuous protests which erupted in the wake of the killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by police in Minneapolis on May 25.
Williams wrote in a long Instagram post that Floyd’s death and other incidents had shown that “racism that still pervades America.” “This just scratches the surface of the hideous face of racism in America,” she said.
