Serena and Venus Williams: forged as champions

The Williams sisters Serena and Venus are two American professional tennis players: Venus Williams born in 1980, winner of seven singles Grand Slam tournaments, and Serena Williams born in 1981, winner of 23 singles Grand Slam tournaments.

In more than twenty years, they have won 121 singles tournaments, 4 mixed doubles tournaments and occupied a total of more than 300 weeks at number one singles and eight weeks in the doubles leaderboard. After the 2002 French Open, Venus and Serena were number one and two in the singles rankings respectively.

Both are part of the small group of tennis players who have won more than 50 titles. Pairing up in women’s doubles tournaments, the Williams sisters won 14 Grand Slam events and on one occasion they won 4 in a row (from Wimbledon 2009 to Paris 2010), but not in the same year.

The results are not lacking even at the Olympics: they have won a total of four gold medals each, three of which together in the women’s doubles and one each in singles. The girls cut their teeth on the fields around Compton.

And to this day, the Williams sisters are a source of pride in the city. It is only logical that the sisters would be honoured and their statues raised at National Museum of African American History and Culture.