Venus ready to explode into stardom

Venus Williams is used to wild accusations. Her father Richard made the first one when he declared that she would become the world number one before the age of 18. While that failed to come true, Venus can hardly be described as a daughter who has failed him.

Like her father, Venus is determined to show a side that reaches outside of tennis. Instilled with a part-time education and a willingness to grapple with issues beyond the game, her occasionally exaggerated claims of greatness have masked a 20-year-old who has more to say than most players and who, on court, is redefining the women's game.

It took the subjugation of her sister this week for Venus to engage in what was, for a Williams, a kind of heresy. She spoke softly about her opponent. She deviated from the I word. "Yeah, I know Serena lost," she said. "She's a real competitor, probably even more than what I am as far as when it comes to losing. She hates to lose. So that really hurts her deep.

"But it was like when we beat Martina Navratilova the other day. It's tough to see her go but we had no other choice. The same thing today. It's tough to see one of us go, but there was no other choice."

When the black rap group NWA sang about the troubles in Los Angeles, they named the song, Straight outta Compton. The town 11 miles from central LA is a melting pot for social disharmony and violence, not tennis. There was not much choice in Compton.

Richard's radicalism drove him to putting a racquet in his daughter's hand at four years old for the beginning of his life's work. He subsequently taught her a level of self belief and blind application that is now drawing down accusations of arrogance.

But his persistence paid off and, when Venus was 10, she began appearing in photographs as a starlet alongside former US presidents.

By the age of 12 she accumulated a 63game winning streak in the USTA sectional programme in Southern California and was tipped to take all under-age championships before her. But, even as she turned professional at 14, Richard decided to hold her back from playing in junior competition.

Richard then, almost perversely, began to teach Venus that the only life she knew on the tennis court was transient and fickle if well rewarded.

"I've had a great life," says Venus. "I haven't had a lot of problems. Sure, you know living in Compton isn't like the most desired place to live, not the top 100. But I had a great time. I still miss the ice cream trucks."

It's clear she has never forgotten her roots. When the State House close to the Hilton Head family Circle tournament in South Carolina earlier this year refused to take down the symbolically racist confederate flag, Serena pulled out of the tournament. Venus would have also, but was sidelined with a wrist injury and wasn't playing tennis. Tiger Woods also withdrew when the PGA golf tour was scheduled to play at the same venue but, where Woods declined to take up the issue of race, the Williams were explicit. "I didn't play there because I'm not going to play anywhere that's going to put my race down," said Serena.

Without trying, they have both become symbols of what can be achieved against the odds. The Wimbledon final for Venus represents this particularly so. A black woman from the ghetto changing the face of a white middle-class sport in the biggest tennis tournament in the world is wide-screen Hollywood stuff.

"Lindsay's had some injuries just like I have, so we're both kinda in the same boat. Definitely we are both going to want to raise the level of our games," she says.

While people have largely been talking about Serena and Venus as one person, the final today will afford Venus the chance to carve out a more distinct persona for herself. She has not yet won a Grand Slam event and, until that happens, her greatness will remain on hold.

While her imposing frame and extraordinary physique has been tuned by her duel against Martina Hingis in the quarter-final and her sister in the semi-final, it is more than a final for her.

It is Venus finally fitting into the plan her father created 20 years ago.