Serena vs. Venus: How a Photograph Spotlighted the Fight for Equality

by Danielle Smith-llera

The final match of the 2001 U.S. Open featuring tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams was groundbreaking. It was first time siblings had squared off in the final match for more than 100 years. And it was the first time both players were black. The photo of the smiling Williams sisters holding their trophies after the tennis match appeared in newspapers around the globe. It captured two athletes who fought, and would continue to fight, for a place for women and African-Americans in tennis and the world beyond.

64 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[GreerP :)]

This is a biography of two sisters, Serena and Venus Williams, who became very famous tennis players, thanks to the help of their parents.

I feel like the title, Serena versus Venus, should be changed to a more catchy title, like Tennis Sisters. I expected it to very boring, due to the cover images, but I gave it a second chance and opened it up. I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a very good book. I learned a lot of new facts that I didn’t know before, such as, Venus is older than Sirena - I thought they were twins. They started playing tennis when they were 10 years old.

I felt like the author’s purpose was to inform readers about their tennis life, but I wish more information about their personal life was included.

This would be a nice book for someone who likes sports, especially tennis. It was a quick read, with a lot of photos. I like sports, but I never really was interested in tennis though. This book got me to be a little more interested in tennis and I would like to read more books about the girls in the future.

[Recoco]

I've never been wildly interested in tennis before. I've heard about these sisters before but barely knew anything about them. The book is packed with every bitsy thing including lots of images that concerns these two sisters. I was surprised to find out that these two actually were famous for lots of racial equality things. I thought the match was famous because two sisters destroyed each other and it was a really exciting game( I mean it was an exciting game though...). They were very determined to bring colored and woman to sports. Even after winning the most prestigious tennis tournament in England and shaking hands with queen Elizabeth, they still thought it wasn't enough. That's real determination. I was also surprised that people assumed that Bobby Riggs in the first man vs. woman tennis match would win without any thought. That lady destroyed him completely. Riggs even shook hands with King (the woman ) so I guess at this time people are finally accepting woman as athletes. I just don't get why those people booed at Indian Wells. She literally injured herself and people are booing? Like what the heck?
Welp I recommend this to anyone who loves tennis or sports.