‘Gotta Have Him Not Show Up’ – 3 Decades After Being a Pro, Venus Williams Bemoans the Impact of Father Richard Williams’ Strict Principles on Her Tennis Growth

Venus Williams has achieved practically everything a pro tennis player can dream of achieving. The 7-time Grand Slam title winner along with her sister Serena dominated both singles and doubles tennis during the noughties and 2010s. However, surprisingly, for someone who has achieved so much, she is still quite afraid of her father. This became evident during a recent Q&A session that Venus conducted with fans on Instagram.

As she answered one of her fans’ questions regarding slicing, she revealed why it would be better for her to demonstrate the correct technique via a demo video. At the same time, Venus revealed the person whose presence during training makes it difficult for her to do videos.

‘Cat’ Richard Williams’ presence prevents ‘mouse’ Venus Williams from playing

Venus Williams frequently does QnA Instagram sessions. The sessions feature some interesting questions from her fans regarding everything tennis. Recently, a fan asked Venus, “What is a tip for slicing better?”

Of course, it would be much easier for Venus to explain how to execute a proper slice through a demo video. However, she had to ultimately do her best to demonstrate the correct technique off the court. Venus said, “I’ll have to do more demos on the court, but the issue is that my dad shows up.”

Venus went on to explain, “When he’s there, it’s kinda like, when the cat’s there, the mice can’t play, so I can’t do videos when he’s there”. She concluded, “He’s still the boss. So, that’s the hard part. When he doesn’t show up, I can do more videos. So I gotta have him not show up on Thursdays.”

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Richard Williams was always the boss

Richard Williams truly stamped his authority on the Williams’ sisters when he made the decision to make professional tennis players out of them. After he took that decision, every decision that followed was to see his dream through all the way.

After Williams’ friend and iconic tennis coach Rick Macci offered to train the sisters for free at his academy, Williams’ didn’t think twice about uprooting the family from California. In 1995, he again took a difficult decision and pulled both the sisters out from Macci’s academy as he believed that his daughters were being subject to racist slurs. After pulling them out from Macci’s academy, he trained the sisters alongside their mother, Oracene Price. So, in all fairness, there’s no doubting who the boss is in the Williams family.

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