Serena Williams: “Our dad said always put God first”

A family collectively having 30 Grand Slam singles titles and eight Olympic gold medals in tennis is something which is rarest of the rare happening in this world. They are undeniably the Williams sisters who first stepped on the tennis court under their father, Richard Williams guidance. He was inspired by  Virginia Ruzici, 1978 Roland Garros champion from Romania and he decided to put his daughters into tennis. He received tennis lessons from a man known as “Old Whiskey”.

Richard meticulously worked with them and fanaticised his daughters winning Grand Slams. He embraced tennis to his fullest, but however, he had something else as a priority than tennis. Richard believes that God is the supreme source of everything in this world. Also, he firmly perceives family is the next significant entity in an individual’s life. As Serena says, “Tennis is just a game, a family is forever.”

“Our dad said always put God first and then family and then tennis”, Serena Williams reported. “And I remember being so young and not understanding, because I was like, ‘We want to do tennis first.’ He’s like, ‘No, God always comes first, followed by your family. And then after that, it’s tennis.’ I thought that was interesting. I never forgot that. I kind of always lived by that. And I think that’s what made me and my sister such rounded people”.

Presently Serena is residing in Florida but not in the same house as her mother and her sister Venus.  “I moved out, like, three years ago. I was like, ‘Venus, I’m never going to have a serious relationship if we’re roommates forever.’ It was hard for me for the first six months and I still stayed in our house. It was like, ‘This is my bed!’ But then, slowly, it got easier. Now she’s always over here. She doesn’t keep anything in her house, so she always comes over here and gets food. It’s honestly pathetic, but we’re really close”, said Serena.