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‘No Other Way for the Film to Be Relevant’ – Spanish Hall of Famer Slams Venus and Serena Williams’ ‘King Richard’ for Showing Her as the Villain

Published 04/25/2022, 5:12 AM EDT

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 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the Spanish tennis ace, retired in the year 2002, and what a glorious career she had. Arantxa turned pro in 1985 and became the world no.1 in 1992. Further, she has 4 singles, 6 doubles, and 4 mixed doubles Grand Slam titles. After she marked an end to her career, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the year 2007.

Recently, while in a Spanish radio program, the former world no.1 spoke about the ups and downs of her career. In addition, Vicario also shared her thoughts about the very successful movie King Richard. She had a few things to say about how she was portrayed in the movie.

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Arantxa Sanchez Vicario Speaks About King Richard

Arantxa was the top player when Serena and Venus’ careers started flourishing. Therefore, the match in which Serena played against her with a better hold on the game got featured in the movie. However, Arantxa has challenged the factuality of her portrayal in the same.

According to the movie, before Sanchez took a bathroom break, Serena was in complete control of the match as she led by 6-2, 3-1 but after her break, the Spaniard totally flipped the match. To which she said, “The moment they painted me as a very bad person was when I am losing 2-6 and 1-3 is totally incorrect.”

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Sanchez believes the credibility of that portion of the movie lies in how she cunningly broke Serena’s flow by taking a break. Therefore, she chose to give a justification and said, “The bathroom break is limited. I would have been penalized if I had stayed longer. The thing is, that gives the importance to the film. There is no other way for the film to be relevant.” 

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“I have had a brilliant career. Nobody gave me anything to achieve what I got and I don’t understand the meaning of them taking that out,” she added.

Vicario Always Believed Serena Was Better Than Venus

Vicario admitted that she has been close to the Williams trio during her tennis days. She faced both the sisters on the courts many times. Thus, Vicario had enough time to evaluate them as players. After evaluating them, the former world no.1 concluded that Serena was the one who will be more successful as a player based on her skills and temperament.

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She said, “…when his two daughters were on the circuit, everyone talked about Venus. And I told to the father the one who is going to be really good is going to be Serena.”

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Written by:

Mahima Verma

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Mahima Verma is a Tennis writer for EssentiallySports. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Hotel Management from IHM Mumbai. A sports enthusiast, particularly Tennis since her childhood, Mahima believes that she is fortunate enough to witness the legends like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams play.
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Edited by:

Ranvijay Singh