Serena Williams

📍1117 E Stockton Street, Compton, CA 90221, USA

“Serena Jameka Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in September 1981, the youngest of five daughters of Oracene Price, and the youngest child of Richard Williams. When she was a small child the family moved to Compton, in Los Angeles, where her father, who had taught himself tennis from books and videos, coached Serena and her sister Venus on the cracked public courts of East Compton Park, following a plan he had written before they were born. The neighbourhood was affected by gang violence, and the family has described practising while gunshots could sometimes be heard nearby. Serena and Venus trained together every day, and by her early teens Serena was showing extraordinary power. In 1991 the family moved to Florida so the sisters could train at a tennis academy, and Serena went on to win twenty-three Grand Slam singles titles.”

Sources: Williams, S. On the Line (2009), Grand Central Publishing; Williams, R. Black and White: The Way I See It (2014), Atria Books; Clarey, C. The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer (2021), Twelve