The film “King Richard: Creating Champions” is a production released in 2021 and inspired by the real story of sisters Venus and Serena Williams. Will Smith’s performance as father Richard Williams earned the actor an Oscar in 2022.
Although the best-known figures in the sport were tennis players, the film’s focus is on the girls’ father, who managed to take his daughters from the courts of Compton, California, to the top of the predominantly white world of tennis. But what was portrayed in the film, what happened in the lives of the tennis players? THE Sporting News explains.
Are Venus Williams and Serena Williams sisters?
The tennis players are sisters, daughters of Richard Williams and Oracene Price, and form one of the most iconic duos in the history of tennis. In addition to their legendary singles careers, they also won several titles together in doubles, including Olympic medals and Grand Slam titles.
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Who is Richard Williams?
The story of the film unfolds based on the tennis players’ father’s goal of making his daughters successful professionals. When Richard watches a women’s tennis match on TV and discovers that the tournament champion, Romanian Virginia Ruzici, has won a $30,000 prize, Williams decides to come up with an 85-page plan to turn his daughters into the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Richard Williams grew up amid social and racial difficulties that marked his worldview and profoundly influenced the way he guided his daughters’ education and careers. Even before the duo was born, Richard had already decided that they would be successful tennis players.
Born and raised in Compton, California, the Williams sisters began fulfilling their father’s plan when they were just four years old.
In the film, we see how young Venus and Serena had an extremely strict training routine, including playing on the Compton court at night, while it was raining. As his daughters improve, Richard starts distributing flyers to different elite tennis coaches. Until they get adequate training that makes them champions.
When he stopped coaching his daughters, Richard continued to closely follow their careers and participate in important decisions, such as reducing participation in professional tournaments, and also issues related to sponsorship.
The strong personality of King Richards (portrayed in the film and also reported by the press during the successful years of the Williams duo), often seen as arrogant, raises questions not only about the girls’ upbringing but also how far he went to achieve his goal.
