3 Decades After Making Her WTA Tour Debut, 42-Year-Old Venus Williams Throws Light on Escaping Father Richard Williams’ Attempt to Influence Her Game

American tennis legend Venus Williams, along with her sister Serena Williams, has achieved almost everything in professional tennis. And when talking about their decorated careers, invariably, the role of Richard Williams comes up. It is universally known that the father of the Williams sisters trained his daughters from their early childhood. However, Venus recently revealed a couple of techniques she “never” learned, despite her father’s encouragement.

The 7-time singles Grand Slam champion last played at the ASB Classic in Auckland. However, her time in Auckland was cut short by injury. Since then, Venus has been working her way back to fitness. And if things do not go south, the 42-year-old can be seen smashing tennis balls on the court very soon.

The one time Venus Williams didn’t adhere to King Richard’s gameplan

Despite possessing numerous technical qualities, Venus rarely practiced serve and volleying. During her latest Instagram fan interaction session, a fan pointed to that fact but went on to ask her if she has any valuable tips to offer. The fan asked, “You have any tips for serve and volleying? You’ve done ever once and while and it worked.”

In her response, Venus wrote, “Well I did it once this week!” She added, “My dad always wanted us to serve and volley but I never did it. My dad was a serve and volleyer.”

When Venus was at the peak of her powers, it was her aggression that terrorized opponents. Her serve and groundstrokes were her main strengths. However, as the fan rightly said, if needed, she could dish out an effective serve and volley from time to time. Venus’ answer reflected that despite the resounding success of ‘King’ Richard’s unconventional approach to training, there still were some aspects of his coaching that his daughters did not absorb.

Read More: Venus Williams Reveals How Dad Richard Williams Accompanies her for ‘Every Practice’ Session

Richard Williams’ unconventional methods paid dividends as his daughters went on to become superstars

Venus and Serena were both quite young when their father Richard Williams decided to make pro tennis players out of them. For some time, ‘King’ Richard relied heavily on the coaching expertise and experience of Rick Macci. However, there came a time when Richard Williams pulled both his daughters out from Macci’s academy and took sole charge of their coaching duties.

Richard Williams’ methods were far from conventional, as he himself never trained under a professional coach. In the past, Venus has revealed how strict Richard Williams was during his time as the sisters’ sole tennis coach.

Ultimately though, his methods worked wonders as the sisters’ unconventional playing styles allowed them to become the most dominant women’s tennis players. What’s more? They asserted their dominance not just for a few years, but for almost two decades.

Watch This Story: Venus Williams Comes Up with Bold Revelation on Sister Serena’s Walloping Power