Williams Sisters Open Doors, Straight Out of Compton

On a neatly lined tennis court in Compton, 8-year-old Mandi Jenkins hit a forehand, then, her braids swinging and her expression serious, she waited for her father to hit the ball back.

They were practicing on the same court--at what is now East Rancho Dominguez Park--where famed tennis sisters Serena and Venus Williams once practiced amid broken glass, gangs and violence.

Then called East Compton Park, the courts on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Compton Boulevard form the backdrop for the stories told by father-coach Richard Williams of his daughters’ childhoods.

Williams believed early on that Serena and Venus would one day be champions. And, as they met Thursday in the Wimbledon semifinals--older sister Venus defeated Serena, 6-2, 7-6 (3)--a new generation of African American tennis players is beginning to emerge.

“Mandi is going to be the one to beat Serena and Venus,” said her father, Michael Jenkins, watching his daughter swing at one of the 450 balls she hits each day.

Jenkins, 44, knew the Williams sisters long before they became famous. He had been a local tennis instructor for eight years when Richard Williams brought his daughters, then 4 and 6, to Peck Park in San Pedro, where Jenkins coached.

“Richard asked me to take a look at the girls,” Jenkins said. “ . . . After 20 minutes I took Richard aside and said, ‘Richard, these girls are good.’ I worked with them for three weeks, and I could see it. They had it from the start.”

Jenkins has been with the National Junior Tennis League, which targets areas not normally exposed to tennis, for 20 years. He has noticed the interest in tennis rise in the area since the Williamses’ success and hopes it will change attitudes in the African American community.

“The kids are excited about tennis, but [coaches in the area] still have to fight with some of the parents’ attitude that this is a rich white man’s sport,” Jenkins said. “I get more negative response than positive. There are only a few black parents like Richard who really believe in the idea of their children becoming professional tennis players.

“But Serena and Venus have opened the door for us. When Richard started this, all the doors were closed.”

The Williamses’ success means a lot to the children who now play in the park. Many saw the Wimbledon match as a boost for a community perhaps known more for its high crime and gang violence.

“One time, we were practicing on the court in East Compton Park when someone raised up and started shooting,” Venus Williams told the Guardian newspaper of London. “I don’t know what they were shooting at. The courts were right by the street. We all just dived for cover. I guess I was 8 or 9.”

Darrell Lovely, 14, has been coming to the park for four years. “I think people think Compton is full of bad people,” he said. “They think we’re just about shooting this and rapping about that. Then when one of us succeeds, they say, ‘We were wrong all along,’ They have the wrong image of Compton.

“I think about [the Williams sisters] growing up surrounded by the Crips and the Bloods, and think if they did it, I can too. They give Compton a good name.”

Said Robert Wright, 38, a lifelong Compton resident: “It doesn’t matter which of the sisters wins, just as long as one of them does. This community needs this. We have to show people that good things can come out of Compton.”

The Williams sisters would seem to qualify.

Lovely remembers meeting Venus two years ago. He didn’t know at the time that the “tall lady with the white braids” giving tennis lessons to the East Rancho Dominguez Park kids was a famous athlete until he saw her in a commercial later that week.

Since then, he said, Venus has come to the center from time to time to hand out tennis rackets. But some kids still don’t recognize her. Many children and teenagers were unaware that the sisters played each other Thursday on the sport’s most hallowed grounds.

“Shaq and the Lakers,” said David Lee, 11. “That’s what I watch.”

But others are taking an interest in tennis because of the Williamses’ success.

“Our dad was watching tennis on TV one day, and I said, ‘Why are you watching tennis?’ ” Byron Griffith, 13, said. “He told me about Venus. Ever since then, I’ve been watching [the sisters]. I don’t like tennis, but I like how they play hard and they represent Compton. I’m going to watch the match.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.