2020-06-17
31 分钟You can binge all episodes of Sports Wars exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Find Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts. They’re legends. Records breakers. Stars who’ve dominated the biggest stages in tennis. Yet Serena and Venus Williams rose to fame under some of the most unlikely circumstances. And the two would not only face off against the tennis establishment. They’d have to struggle through a complicated sibling rivalry. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
It's the spring of 1991.
In a hotel restaurant just a few blocks from Los Angeles International Airport.
Rick Macy flew in from Florida last night and is stirring a styrofoam cup of complimentary coffee.
He's waiting for his meeting to begin.
Macy is a tennis coach, and he's here in LA to meet a young player, someone he hopes can maybe get his coaching career back on track.
The coach only knows a little bit about the man with whom hes scheduled to meet a 49 year old guy from Compton, one of the roughest neighborhoods in LA.
The guy says hes coaching the best tennis player in the world, and that player is his daughter.
The guy owns some kind of security firm, but nobody in the tennis world has ever heard of him.
His name is Richard Williams.
His daughter's name is Venus.
Macy wanted to see Venus for himself, as Richard's hype was just too much to believe.
And Venus apparently isn't the end of the story.
Richard also mentioned that he has another daughter who's also great.
It all sounded too good to be true.
So Macy hopped a flight to LA to come watch Venus hithenne.
If her dads claim is even a little bit true, even 10%, thinks Macy, it could be one of the most incredible tennis stories in the history of the sport.
Sitting in the hotel restaurant, on the edge of a well worn chair, Macy adds another sugar to his cheap coffee.
Hes still waiting for Williams to show.
Macy glances toward the automatic double doors and wonders if this wild goose chase is even worth it.
And thats when he spots the trio.