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MUMBAI:
Venus Williams is a six-time Grand Slam winner with the fastest
serve ever seen in the woman's game at a cool 127.4 mph. With the
Australian Open well underway, CNN’s Anjali Rao sits down with
Williams on this weekend’s Talk Asia and talks about her current
number eight ranking, her beginnings growing up in the tough Los
Angeles neighborhood of Compton, her rigorous training schedule,
and close relationship with fellow pro and sister Serena. Anjali
Rao also catches up with PGA golfer Hank Kuehne, who happens to
be Williams' boyfriend, to reveal a more personal side of the tennis
star.
The
former world number one is currently ranked eighth but reveals to
Rao “I mean I love being number 1….being my absolute best,
but at this point I feel okay within number eight” and proved
that she is still on top of her game when she was the lowest ranked
player ever to win a Wimbledon single’s title.
 On
her upbringing, the story goes that Richard Williams had wanted
at least one pro tennis player in the family even before his daughters
were born. He made sure that the young Williams sisters underwent
intensive training, practicing their groundstrokes late at night,
often in the freezing weather. Looking back, however, Williams is
grateful for her father’s harsh coaching style, believing that
all the hard work led her where she is today, “I appreciate
everything that he’s done, just to have two girls from one
family do it to the top level is amazing.”
Despite
Compton being notorious for gang violence, her father took the sisters
to the public park for tennis practice. Williams reminisces how
she once had to dodge bullets when they were caught in the middle
of a shootout during one practice session. Yet, nothing stopped
the sisters’ dedication to tennis and as Williams remembers,
“after a while, we got back to practicing there.”
Williams
also talks candidly on her close relationship with her sister and
recalls the two times when she played against Serena in the finals
on Wimbledon’s centre court. She tells Rao, “when we step
on the court for sure…we’re not going to give each other
a point.” But off court “we’ll say, well geez, should
have played better.” Rao also talked to Williams’ long
time boyfriend Kuehne who suggests that “the world is a lonely
place…so it’s always nice to be able to have people that
are closest to you…there with you…so I think I can help
in that respect.” and on Williams “she’s just the
same at home as she is on the court.”
For
more program information on Talk Asia visit www.cnn.com/ talkasia.
Transcripts are available online after the program has aired.
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