“Serena Williams Represents a Beacon of Possibility” – Will Smith

It was the year 2015 when Sports Illustrated had presented its end of year awards and the American actor Will Smith also attended the event. In the midst of the ceremony, Smith shared his thoughts on Serena Williams to SI.

That year, Serena was declared SI’s ‘Sportsperson of The Year’. She held all four Slams at once, beginning from US Open 2014 until Wimbledon 2015. And her 33 major-match winning streak was snapped by Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of US Open 2015.

Besides her Slam eminence, the superwoman of WTA Williams clinched the titles at Miami and Cincinnati Open. Also, she just dropped two non-Slam matches against Petra Kvitova in Madrid and Belinda Bencic at Rogers Cup. Altogether the SI’s ‘Sportsperson of The Year’ Williams lost just three matches in 2015.

Will Smith on Serena Williams

“She represents the accomplishing of the impossible. She should not exist. If you check the numbers, you can‘t make a Serena Williams out of the ingredients that Serena and Venus Williams were made from. So she represents a beacon of possibility,” Will Smith sang the praises of Serena. 

The Williams sisters are certainly made up of the tutorials given by their 78-year-old father Richard Williams. Without his lessons, the ‘dynamic duo’ of tennis wouldn’t have attained their present niche. The tennis audience will be excited to know more about the techniques implemented by Richard, which made them invincible in the sport.

For the sake of that, the 51-year-old actor Smith is presently working on the biographical movie ‘King Richard’. The film is based on Serena and Venus’ father Richard Williams. Jon Bernthal and Aunjaneu Ellis are also part of the movie’s cast.

Bernthal is playing the role of tennis coach Rick Macci, who initially coached Serena and Venus in Florida during the 1990s. And Ellis plays the role of Serena and Venus’ mother, Brandi Williams. A few weeks ago, the film cast was spotted working on it. 

Serena and Venus’ father, Richard initially did not have any formal tennis knowledge. Later, he took tennis lessons, thoroughly studied the sport and then introduced his daughters to the sport. He created a 78-page playbook for his daughters and trained them accordingly.

He was inspired by the 1978 French Open champion Virginia Ruzici from Romania. After watching her play on television, Richard began working on his daughters’ future in tennis.