First Family of Tennis- NY Times

Venus, left, and Serena Williams in 1994. NewsBase, via Associated Press First Family of Tennis On Saturday, Serena Williams bested her older sister Venus to win her seventh Australian Open singles title. It was her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, a new record in the Open era (Venus has seven Grand Slam singles titles). The first Williams sister appeared in our pages on July 3, 1990. “At a time when tennis prodigies seem to be surfacing every week, the latest hot prospect is a 10-year-old Californian, Venus Williams,” was the lead paragraph of a short article. There was also a mention of her 8-year-old sister, Serena. A little over five years later, we covered Serena’s first match as a 14-year-old professional, which ended in a defeat. Since then, we’ve published tens of thousands of words and hundreds of photos of the Williamses, who grew up in Compton, a low-income city outside Los Angeles, and have been a dominant force in a mostly white “country-club” sport. Their father, Richard, once called Venus the “ghetto Cinderella.” Here are some of the chapters of that Cinderella story: Adeel Hassan »

Flashback to 1998: The Williams Sisters’ First Meeting at a Slam By ROBIN FINN In the second round of the Australian Open that year, Venus beat Serena, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1. Here’s how The Times covered it. After Times of Grief and Doubt, a Tennis Ace Is Hungry Again By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY With a triumphant victory at the Australian Open, Serena Williams is back on the cutting edge of tennis. Williamses’ Rivalry Is Close and Compelling, if Not Classic By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY Venus and Serena Williams are facing each other for the singles trophy at Wimbledon, shifting from sisters off the court to combatants on it. Williams Sisters Write Their Own Story By KAREN CROUSE Venus and Serena Williams have enlivened tennis in careers filled with success, controversy, acceptance and each other. Venus and Serena Against the World By JOHN JEREMIAH SULLIVAN 15 years after the sisters’ first U.S. Open, theirs is still the most interesting story in sports. A Final Match for Venus and Serena Williams. But Maybe Not the Last One. By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY It would be tempting to say the sisters’ meeting in the Australian Open might be their last in a Grand Slam tournament final, but they have upended conventional wisdom before.