Serena Williams has become one of the most exciting and closely watched players in tennis. Alongside Venus, her older sister, she forms half of a prodigal tennis pairing that has been stealing headlines for all the right reasons.
Serena Williams was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on September 26, 1981, but she and her sister were raised in the economically depressed and often violence-riddled Los Angeles suburb of Compton. Her father Richard ran a private security firm, and her mother Oracene (who often uses the name Brandy) was a nurse. Richard Williams dreamed of the opportunities that might await his offspring-to-be: "I went to my wife and said, "Let's have kids and make them tennis players" he told Newsweek.
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