Venus and Serena

What do you want to be when you g row u p?

Tennis pIayer.

I wouId Iike to be a tennis pIayer.

One of the greatest mysteries

of modern American history, I think,

how two girIs from Com pton couId go down

as among the greatest tennis pIayers ever.

What's your am bition for Venus and Serena in tennis?

For both of 'em to become n um ber one in the world .

A girI whose dad caIIs her and her sisters

the kids from the ghetto, the girIs from the ghetto.

RlCHARD WlLLlAMS: Ghetto makes you reaI strong,

reaI tough, reaI brave.

Make you to a point that you beIieve you can do anything,

and you wiII.

I remember the braids, and I just remember they were, Iike, reaIIy bIack.

They were, Iike, bIack-bIack.

They weren't, like, country cIub bIack.

They were bIack Iike I'm used to.

A match that's of great interest to everybody,

the WiIIiams sisters pIaying each other

for the very, very first time in a tournament.

That's it, Venus abIe to beat her IittIe sister Serena.

PRESlDENT CLlNTON : At first, I just saw them as a sports fan.

Serena, she was onIy 1 7 at the time,

and she just gave this aura out that, you know,

once she mastered her power,

nobody in the worId wouId be abIe to beat her.

From the pubIic courts of Compton, CaIifornia,

to U.S. Open champion.

It was the feeIing you get when you see Lebron James

or Dwight Howard dunk a basketbaII.

That's the aura she gave out even at 1 7.

Venus can get from doubIes sideIine

to doubIes sideIine in three strides,

so there's not a baII you can get past her.

She's got the heart of a champion.

It reaIIy surprised me when both of them were that good.

Sisters Venus and Serena WiIIiams won

the women's doubIes titIe today,

the first sisters to win OIympic goId in tennis.

Two bIack girIs from Compton probabIy weren't supposed

to ever pIay tennis or Iet aIone be reaIIy good at it.

Two U.S. pIayers, sisters, same household, same bedroom,

prime time, Saturday night, U.S. Open.

No one couId have scripted that ever.

Venus and Serena WiIIiams have made tennis history.

They're the first sisters and the first African-Americans

ever to cIaim the top two spots in the world rankings.

Venus is ranked number one.

Serena is right behind her at number two.

No pIayer had their number.

There wasn't sort of this nemesis that reaIIy stood up to them.

Game, set, match.

Miss Serena WiIIiams.

Two sets to Love.

7-6, 6-3.

This young Iady Iast year enjoyed success

at the French Open, at the WimbIedon Championship,

and the U.S. Open, and now she's opened

the new tennis year with an AustraIian Open championship.

We're caIIing it the Serena SIam.

Part of their attraction is that they were these incredibIe,

magnetic, athIetic goddesses,

and they're gIadiators on the court,

fashion gladiators, and tennis gIadiators.

Sisters just 1 5 months apart.

What would be the odds they couId not onIy choose

the same profession, but dominate it?

The story goes that you're reaIIy not even that big a fan of tennis,

that you kind of looked at this sport as a great way

for your famiIy to raise itseIf up and make some cash.

- ls that true? - That is so true.

Venus WiIIiams, champion again.

My parents told me I'd be number one in the worId.

I was brainwashed.

They were each other's greatest rivaIs.

If there were no Venus or there were no Serena,

you couId nearIy doubIe either of their Grand SIam titIes.

DlCK ENBERG: Rod Laver Arena.

There is a little girl that came out to ceIebrate

her third Aussie Open championship.

Venus's fifth WimbIedon titIe.

She did it without dropping a set.

Venus and Serena aIso won 1 2 doubIes Grand SIam titIes.

This is a, you know, a wiIdIy successfuI doubIes team.

The WiIIiams take the AustraIian Open.

MACCl: No two people have infIuenced the game of tennis

in this past 25 years than Venus and Serena.

They transcended the sport.

SpeciaI day in the speciaI Iife of a speciaI champion,

Serena WiIIiams, for a fourth time, WimbIedon champion.

According to a report in People magazine,

Serena WiIIiams is hospitaIized in Los AngeIes

- after having emergency treatment -

for a bIood cIot in her Iungs.

You guys have a Ieopard cast?

Which, I had a Iot of bIood cIots

biIateraIIy in both of my Iungs.

I taIked to Venus on the phone, and l said, "Well..."

and l was like, "It's been swoIIen for a few days,

"but now it's just getting worse."

And so she said, "You have a bIood cIot,"

and l was like, "I don't have a bIood cIot."

A doctor that I had said,

"Take her to the emergency room immediately."

- See you later. - I don't feeI anything.

- You're gonna feeI it. - We Iove you.

- Love you. - I'ma caII Mom.

- Bye. - Let her know you good.

When I got the caII that she was in the hospitaI,

I was just reaIIy in shock.

And l don't know if she reaIized how serious it was.

I'm so gratefuI that she went,

because she couId have died just by not knowing.

Does that hurt?

Yeah, I've been reaIIy worrying IateIy, Iike,

maybe I hurt it Iike this.

BeautifuI day here in MeIbourne.

The sun's out at Iast.

1 8 degrees at the AustraIian Open.

Serena's had a Iot of pubIic heaIth issues,

but during that same time,

I've aIso been going through a Iot of my own issues.

I'm stiII on a kind of down-and-out road.

For me, tennis has aIways been a part of my Iife.

It's just who I am.

I've been pIaying since I was four years oId,

so not onIy do I Iove the game, l love the challenge.

I Iove the pressure.

It's wrapped up into who I am.

We Iove you, Venus!

Venus 30 years of age.

And you've got to say, a veteran of the tour.

Many wondering if there is another major in her.

I just screamed from the pain.

You know, it was just invoIuntary.

I was abIe to win that match, but l was finished after that.

Game to Miss Williams.

But l wanted to go out and know for sure 1 00%

that I couIdn't pIay.

- -

She's in trouble.

The pain I was in was an impossible pain,

so it was something that is-- you know, you don't pIay through.

That's it.

That's it, I'm afraid.

The crowd feeI a IittIe cheated, l guess, sadly.

Right now she in there pissed.

I mean, she's probabIy saying,

"Now, what kind of reaction was that?"

I'm gonna fight.

Been fighting for a Iong time, so I can fight Ionger.

Now we want to introduce you to a proud father,

a man who is pushing his daughter, Venus WiIIiams,

to be the best in the worId.

Good racket speed.

Good racket speed, Venus.

Speed that racket head up.

Richard Williams, he supposedIy bought a book

or some DVD or something and sort of said,

"I'm gonna teach these kids how to play tennis,"

in some reaIIy tough part of Los AngeIes.

We grew up on Stockton Street, Compton, California 90221 .

That's where we grew up. And I'ma teII you something.

There was nothing remoteIy un-hood about it.

You got to win. No, you gonna win.

Now, aren't you?

- You gonna win for us? - Mm-hmm.

Good girI. That's aII I'm asking.

How do you feeI the way you're hitting the baII right now?

Good, Daddy.

How about your feet. Your feet moving around?

- No, Daddy. - How about yours?

- Yes, Daddy. - Very good.

So what we want to do-- you know, don't get excited.

This is your game.

Richard was going around and begging private country cIubs

Iike Riviera Country CIub and others

to give him their used baIIs.

And he wouId then fiII up a shopping cart

and an oId VoIkswagen bus.

We didn't taIk on the phone.

We didn't go to schooI parties and all that stuff,

but somehow I didn't feeI like l missed out.

I mean, there's probabIy a few things I wanted to go to,

but I figured I wasn't gonna go, so l didn't ask,

and anyway, most of the time, I was at practice.

She was, l guess, the guinea pig, in a sense.

Venus, absoIuteIy, there was so much pressure on her

to become a great pIayer that, you know,