Venus had been a figure of mystery for years; her father, Richard, refused to let her play on the junior tennis circuit, so no one knew quite how good she was. He moved his family from the bullet-scarred playgrounds of Compton, Calif., to Rick Macci’s tennis academy in Delray Beach, Fla. Williams sheltered Venus in an atmosphere in which other parents, he says, “couldn’t hit their kids and say, ‘You let that nigger beat you’.”
It took the willowy, 6-foot-1 Williams only two matches as a pro to become a sensation. Making her debut on Halloween night in Oakland, Calif., she beat Shaun Stafford, ranked 59th in the world, and then moved on to face Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, one of the two best players in the world. Venus won nine of the first 11 games of their match before losing 2-6, 6-8, 6-0. Venus was disappointed: “I’m not satisfied. I didn’t come here to lose.” Like Venus, Tiger has a strong-willed pop. Earl is a former Green Beret who so closely follows his son across the links he refers to himself as “The Shadow.” Woods won his first national junior tournament at 15, then two more. Last summer he won three tournaments against adults, then entered the U.S. Amateur in PoRte Vedra, Fla. In the round of 16, Tiger came back from four holes down to beat the coach of the University of Florida team in match play. In the 36-hole final against Oklahoma State’s Trip Kuehne, Woods won six of the final 10 holes and beat Kuehne by two holes. The U.S. Golf Association said it was the greatest comeback in the tournament’s 99-year history. And he’s only just begun.
