The Williams Sister's

The Williams sisters urge African women to play tennis



Serena and Venus Williams with the Governor
Raji Fashola of Lagos State

 Taking their own successes in women's tennis, a sport which before them was dominated by white players, the sisters in their Breaking the Mould Tour in Africa want to inspire women in the African continent to take up the sport and, more generally, to pursue their dreams despite whatever odds they face in male dominated societies.

"We were able to break the mould and win a lot of grand slams and change the face of tennis ... when tennis was very dominated by white people," 31-year-old Serena said three days after beating rival Maria Sharapova in the final of the WTA Championships in Istanbul. "It doesn't matter what your background is and where you come from, if you have dreams and goals, that's all that matters," she added.
The sisters who are presently in Lagos later conducted tennis classes with some children at a Lagos sports club. Yestreday they visited a school to discuss empowerment of girls. Today they will play an exhibition match against each other. (Culled from UK Reuters.)

The Williams sisters also used the opportunity of their visit to address speculations that they were originally from Badagry in Lagos State, by affirming that while they would be happy to be Nigerians, they were proudly Americans.