Full name | Richard Dove Williams Jr. |
---|---|
Born | Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. | February 14, 1942
Coaching career (1994–present) | |
Coaching achievements | |
Coachee Singles Titles total | 49(V)-73(S) (122 titles) |
Coachee(s) Doubles Titles total | 21(S-V)-2(V)-5(S) (28 titles) |
Coaching awards and records | |
Records |
Richard Dove Williams Jr.[1] (born February 14, 1942)[2] is an American tennis coach and the father of Venus and Serena Williams.
Williams was the oldest of five children[3] and the only son of Julia Mae Metcalf (died 1985) and Richard Dove Williams Sr. of Shreveport, Louisiana. His younger sisters are Pat, Barbara, Penny, and Faye.[1] For a time, the family resided on East 79th Street near railroad tracks.[3]
Williams graduated from high school and moved to Saginaw, Michigan[3] and eventually to California.[4]
He took tennis lessons from a man known as "Old Whiskey" and decided his future daughters would be tennis professionals when he saw Virginia Ruzici playing on television.[2] Williams says that he wrote up an 85-page plan, and started giving lessons to Venus and Serena when they were four and a half, and began taking them to the public tennis courts.[5] He would later add that he felt like he took them too early, and the age of six would have been more suitable.[4] Soon he got them into Shreveport tennis tournaments. In 1995, Williams pulled them out of a tennis academy, and coached them himself.[6]
Serena won the US Open in 1999; Venus beat Lindsay Davenport to win the 2000 Wimbledon title. After that victory, Richard shouted "Straight Outta Compton!", in reference to a song by N.W.A based in Compton, California, the same area in Los Angeles where the family once resided.[7] He jumped over the NBC broadcasting booth, catching Chris Evert by surprise and performing a triumphant dance. Evert said that the broadcasters "thought the roof was coming down".[7]
Williams has been married three times.
After moving to California, he met Betty Johnson. They married in 1965 and had five children (three sons and two daughters) before divorcing in 1973:[2] Sabrina, Richard III, Ronner, Reluss, and Reneeka, who were also raised with Betty's other daughter, Katrina.[8]
In 1979, he met Oracene "Brandy" Price, who had three daughters by her then deceased husband. They married in 1980. Williams and Price had two biological daughters, Venus (born June 17, 1980) and Serena (born September 26, 1981). The family resided in Compton, California. Richard and Oracene divorced in 2002.
He raised public interest again after his divorce from Oracene Price and appearances with new girlfriend Lakeisha Juanita Graham who was a grocery store owner[9] and is a year older than Venus.[4] In 2010, Richard and Lakeisha were married and their son Dylan was born in 2012.[10] They later divorced in 2017.[11][9]
Richard also has other children, including Chavoita LeSane.[11] One adult son was present court-side at a tennis game in 2011.[12]
Late in his daughters' careers, he took a less visible role, turning to other interests such as photography.
In July 2016, Williams suffered a stroke. Lakeisha Williams, his wife at the time, stated that his condition was stable.[13] However, he subsequently suffered additional strokes.[11]
Richard Williams' biographical film King Richard starring Will Smith was released on November 19, 2021 to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures and streaming on HBO MAX. The film is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and written by Zach Baylin.
Presented content of the Wikipedia article was extracted in 2021-12-10 based on https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=1941523