‘I Got Really Fired Up’ – Serena Williams Cites King Richard’s Example to Show How She Learned Big Time From Sister Venus

The 2021 sports-drama movie, ‘King Richard’ presented the childhood stories of Venus and Serena Williams beautifully. In that movie, we saw the hardship both sisters had to go through along with their families to become tennis players.

In a recent interview, Serena cited that movie as an example and talked about her struggles at the beginning of her tennis career, as she felt she was not that good. Moreover, she talked about her sister Venus receiving all the opportunities. However, she opened up about learning from that and increasing her level on her own.

Serena Williams talked about learning from Venus to grow as a tennis player

In the September issue of Vogue Magazine, Serena Williams wrote an emotional first person essay, where she said, “If you watched King Richard, then you know that when I was little, I was not very good at tennis. I was so sad when I didn’t get all the early opportunities that Venus got, but that helped me. It made me work harder, turning me into a savage fighter. I’d travel to tournaments with Venus as her hitting partner, and if there was an open slot, I’d play. I followed her around the world and watched her.“

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Then, Serena talked about learning from Venus’ losses and mimicking her. “I learned the lessons from Venus’s losses instead of the hard way, from my own. It was as if I were playing her matches, too. I’m a good mimic. I watched, I listened, then I attacked. But if I hadn’t been in Venus’s shadow, I would never be who I am. When someone said I was just the little sister, that’s when I got really fired up,” Serena further said. 

Notably, despite Venus getting all the early opportunities, Serena was the one who won the first Grand Slam title out of the two back in 1999 at the US Open.

Serena won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open

In the 1999 US Open, Serena beat the Swiss legend Martina Hingis in the final. Earlier, Hingis beat Venus in the semi-final, which destroyed all hopes of seeing the two Williams sisters going head to head in the final.

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It is worth noting that Venus reached the final of the US Open in 1997. Unfortunately, she failed to win her first Grand Slam title at that time. However, she finally opened her account in the year 2000 at Wimbledon.

Even though both Venus and Serena had a strong rivalry on the court, it never affected their sisterly bond. Together they have dominated women’s tennis for nearly two decades.

Earlier, the younger Williams’ sister announced her farewell to tennis, as the US Open 2022 will probably be her last tournament. Safe to say, it’s been a great journey for the two sisters.