After seven years on the WTA Tour 21-year-old Venus Williams is ranked number one in women's tennis, a plateau that only ten other players have accomplished since the computer ranking of players began in November 1975.

The honor brings to fruition the efforts of her father Richard who carved out his daughter's road to success from the outhouse [the ghetto] to the penthouse of women's tennis.

"At this point, I am the best player in the world, so that's exciting and it's going to be mine at least a week," CNNSI reported Williams as saying.

Reaching the number one ranking is remarkable when you consider that only ten players have accomplished that feat in 36 years. What makes Williams achievement more remarkable is that ONLY FIVE players have held the top spot for over an acumed 26 years

Steffie Graf held the number one position for 378 weeks. Martina Navratilova ranks second with 331 followed by Chris Evert 262, Martina Hingis 221 and Monica Seles 178. Other players that held the number one position include Lindsay Davenport 37, Tracey Austin 22, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 12 and Jennifer Capariati with nine.

Williams achieving number one was predicted by her father Richard when he told Venus and her sister Serena, that they would be Grand Slam Champions one day.

Venus has 24 career titles, including four majors. She won Wimbledon and defeated Serena, who was the defending champion to win the U.S. Open in 2000-01. She also won a gold medal in singles at the 2000 Olympics. She received another gold medal for doubles win with Serena as her partner.

 

Venus and Serena Williams in championship form.

"Being No. 1 and winning Grand Slams and winning titles, it's all about having a successful career. I've worked hard. I also deserve a few perks now and then" she said.

The path to success started when they were very young and living in the ghettos of Los Angeles where the senior Williams could hardly find a court to practice on. Tennis isn't a big game in the ghetto, basketball is.

Richard guided his two young daughters by training, managing and preparing them mentally for the challenges that they would face from racist fans and probing media. He knew how unscrupulous the press can be by tricking and prying into a person with leading questions trying to find every chink in ones armor.

I recall seeing the sisters being interviewed when they were about 10-12-years-old by Channel 4/NBC in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Richard was depicted as a tyrant when he ran in front of the camera to stop an interview. He had his reasons… the reporter asked a question that wasn't cleared beforehand by Richard.

It's not an unusual practice for a manager or press representative to query a reporter what questions they would ask before an interview is approved. In this case it was professional adults trying to trick young children. Richard was trying to protect his young daughters but he wasn't portrayed that way.

It was that image of him that kind of set the tone for a negative press towards the two sisters. The station aired his interruption in full giving the viewer the impression that he was wrong in stopping the interview…. he wasn't.

Over the years the family stuck together and toughed it out [See: Williams Tennis Family]. It was as though it was them against the world…. in reality it was.

Richard was trying to protect his daughters from the onslaught of media that had a negative agenda. He was in between a rock and a hard place by trying to get his daughters positive publicity and fending off those who had ulterior motives.

The father took charge and protected his young daughters by warding off anyone who dared to interfere with the way he wanted to bring them up. By watching their father deal with the press the girls developed a mental toughness that has served them well in their progress and maturation to success.

The press often made snide remarks about the sisters and Richard. Many spent a lot of time deriding the sisters wearing beads in their hair.

It was the same tactic that the Thai press made making comments about Englishman Peter Withe, the Thai national teams soccer coach, for not wearing a suite. Withe is a soccer coach and not a fashion model.

The Williams sisters are tennis players and how they choose to wear their hair is not the business of the press, how they play tennis is.

At the Acura Tournament in Manhattan Beach California (USA) in the summer of 1998, a reporter was complaining to me how wrong Richard was in rearing his children. The reporter was a nice guy and we had a good conversation. The problem was I felt his opinion was wrong.

The reporter came from a wealthy area of Los Angeles and had everything given to him by his parents. He went to good schools and had every material thing he needed. To me he was a candy ass…. A softy that really never suffered or knew what life was all about. His life was carefully carved out for him.

My point was how could he be critical of how a person raised his children when he had no idea of what obstacles the Williamses had to overcome to escape poverty and have a better way of life.

I conveyed to him that he wouldn't ride through the neighborhood that the Williams came from in a bulletproof car [See: WTA Teen Queens]. That reporter didn't know what their life was all about…. he never walked in their shoes…he never lived in a ghetto…he never did without.

The reporter didn't know what it was like to live in a neighborhood that had drive by shootings and in a house with bars on the doors and windows to keep people out… and not in.

During that tournament a well-poised Serena faced the press at a press conference after losing a match to Martina Hingis. A reporter asked her about her father's thinking. She coolly responded why don't you ask him he's right there, as she pointed to Richard who was standing at the back of the room.

At that point I was convinced that these girls had the makings of champions and reach number one. With Serena's response it was apparent that she and her sister were ready to handle probing questions that were posed to mentally knock them down.

From that point she went on to achieve major success. In 1999 at the age of 18, Serena seeded seventh, upset No. 1 Martina Hingis, No. 2 Lindsay Davenport and No. 4 Monica Seles en route to her first career Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open, becoming the lowest seed to win the women's title in the Open era (since 1968).

That is the pinnacle of her career thus far. She's now 20-years-old and has been ranked as high as number four but is currently ninth. Her future remains bright but it is Venus that has reached the number one height first that Richard has mapped out for them.

"Being No. 1 was firstly my parents' dream, but it soon became mine too, so reaching it was great not only for me, but for them too," ESPN.Com reported Venus as saying.

"I was just being the daughter of a proud father. And more than anything, I think he knew he put the work in... We were listening to him, and that's why he had the confidence to say that myself and Serena would be Grand Slam champions. Right now, we are some of the best players in the game, I guess, in history, and I just think that I gave a lot of credit to my dad for that."

More that teaching his daughters how to play… the mental game is where Richard has achieved the most.

Related stories: Williams Family

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