On Tennis: Williams Sisters Leave an Impact That’s Unmatched

These days, Serena Williams, left, and Venus Williams face some challengers who watched them on television as children.

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Glyn Kirk/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For a sizable portion of nearly two transformative decades, one family surname has competitively dominated tennis and continually inundated its news. Think about how an emerging generation of female players has never known a tour without the headlining Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

Some telling perspective on the subject from Garbiñe Muguruza, 21, who grew up in Venezuela and Spain:

“When I was 4 or 5, I turned on the TV, and they were playing,” said Muguruza, Serena’s victim in last month’s Wimbledon final. “Today, I turn the TV on, and they are still playing.

“So I am saying, how is this possible?”

Who could resist occasionally posing that question since the late 1990s, when the sisters — born 15 months apart, African-American outliers from gritty Compton, Calif. — began to lay siege to a sport historically and overwhelmingly trending wealthy and white?

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