ABOUT THE BOOK Venus and Serena Williams took the world by storm when they burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s. Their rise stardom marked the realization of their father’s dream. Richard Williams had dreamt his daughters would be professional tennis players, even before they were born. We could probably could imagined what his wife thought when he ran into the room and said to her, “Let’s have kids and make them tennis players,” especially when she wasn’t even pregnant with them yet, from what he told Newsweek. Even when the Williams sisters were just under 5 years old, Mr. Williams recognized his daughters’ raw talent. It took sheer determination and dedication from his little princesses to will them into tennis. Even though he didn’t quite know how he was going to teach them, he knew he had to start somewhere. MEET THE AUTHOR Grace C. Williams is the Vice-President on the Board of Directors of GuidingLight. Growing up, her family always strongly believed in working in the community and giving back which is why she is also on the Board of Directors of RMSC Foundation in South Carolina. Ms. Williams studied at Troy State University where she holds a Bachelors degree in Communication Studies and working on her a Masters Degree at University of Maryland University College with a concentration on Public Relations. Ms. Williams has worked with nonprofit organizations for over 15 years and started her own small consulting services, GAW Consulting in 2001. She is currently working on her own new nonprofit organization called “Servicing our Sisters(SOS).” EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK In 1997, Venus became the first unseeded U.S. Open women’s finalist in the Open era. She lost to Martinia Hingis. In 2000, Williams won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, paving the way for her to get a $40 million contract with Reebok. Venus then went out and defended her titles. At the 2000 Olympic Games, in Sydney, Australia, Williams captured the gold medal in the singles competition, and then took a second one with Serena in the doubles event. In recent years, Venus has struggled with injuries - she competed in only a handful of tournaments in 2006 - but returned in 2007, winning the singles title at Wimbledon. She repeated the victory a year later when she defeated Serena for a fifth career Wimbledon championship, placing her fifth all-time in women’s Wimbledon singles championships. A few months later, the Williams sisters teamed up to capture the doubles title at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Buy a copy to keep reading!