Art Spander: Venus’ path to superstardom started close to home

Venus Williams started out as a humble tennis phenom, playing one of her first match in a major tennis tournament at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. (Getty Images file photo)

She was a teenager, skinny, with beads in her hair and greatness in her future. It was October 1994 and at the building then called Oakland Coliseum Arena, Venus Williams was to play her first match in a major tennis tournament.

“Oh yeah,” Venus said, “I remember a lot about that night. I got to the tennis [court], and I had left my clothes on the bed in the hotel. So that wasn’t the best start.”

The outfit made it to the building. Venus made it to the court, stepping from the protective figurative cocoon imposed by father Richard and even taking a set from Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, top seed in the Virginia Slims tournament.

“I wasn’t nervous after the warmup,” Venus said, recalling the debut. “I remember thinking I wasn’t very good at lobs. I’ve since improved. I remember thinking in the warmup, like, ‘I wonder if I’ll be able to [hit] the lobs up for her.’ That was one of my biggest fears. It puts everything in perspective when you’re only, what was I, 14?”

Venus turned 29 two weeks ago. The past decade she’s been turning tennis on its ear. By Saturday she could have a sixth Wimbledon singles championship and a third in succession. That is, if she can beat Serena. Again.

The two Williams are in Thursday’s semifinal, and the way they’ve squashed the opposition, neither losing a set — Venus in fact winning 32 straight sets since 2007 — there’s no reason to believe that for a second straight year they won’t be in the final.

“I would love it to be an all-Williams final,” Venus said, cognizant she next meets the tour’s No. 1 ranked player, Dinara Safina. Then, Venus said what we all knew, alluding to Serena. “And so would she.”

Wimbledon 2009. Oakland 1994. “Great times then,” Venus remembered of the opening act of a show that may run forever, or in her mind at least until the 2012 Olympics.

“I had a lot of positive feedback growing up that I would be a winner and win tournaments,” she said. Her story is well known. Richard Williams introduced his daughters to tennis on a battered court in Compton, the tough-streets Los Angeles suburb. They belied the idea that this is a sport only for the elite.

“From a young age, when your coaches tell you you’re going to win, you believe it. So I was kind of brainwashed in a good way.”
At Wimbledon, where she streaks around the grass courts, intimidating her opponents — in the fourth round against Ana Ivanovic and the Tuesday quarters against Agnieszka Radwanska, it was 5-0 in both of the first sets — Venus plays tennis in a great way.
“Do I feel invincible?” she asked rhetorically. “I’d like to say yes, but I really work at it.”

Venus, Radwanska, Serena and her opponent in the semis, Elena Dementieva, are scheduled to play in the Bank of the West Classic at the end of July at Stanford. That’s a long way from Wimbledon in distance and meaning, but not all that far from Oakland.
“All I can say,” Venus mused about that first match, “is we had a good time.”

That good time hasn’t ended yet.