FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — Drama. Sports is all about it.
And no one attracts it like the Williams clan. It started from the get-go. When the California-born kids first started knocking yellow balls about, there were echoes of gunshots as they practiced on the hardscrabble courts of Compton. When Venus Williams first won a tournament, her proud dad, Richard, spotted an article in the local newspaper and promptly went around the neighborhood in his van swooping them up. Then, when he gave the wheel of his van to one of his kids, it promptly crashed.
Soon Papa Richard was generating headlines as he claimed his two totally unproven daughters would end up being Nos. 1 and 2 in the world. Silly us. We originally thought what proved to be the best prediction in tennis history was mere paternal braggadocio.
In fact, no other family in tennis – in all of sports – quite attracts (or generates) drama like the Williams clan. Venus withdrew from the Indian Wells tournament in 2001 and soon crowds were hooting and howling at Serena. Major surgeries, the fatal shooting of Venus and Serena’s older half sister, Serena’s problematic time away from the tour, knee surgery and, of course, her ferocious meltdown by at the ’09 U.S. Open when she verbally attacked a lineswoman were all enough drama for many a lifetime.
Then Serena stepped on a glass in a Munich bar (what a quirky accident) and had a brush with death due to a blood clot. (How frightening can you get?) Then, after finally coming back to the big stage and playing her first match at Wimbledon, she wept with joy and relief. What a story!
But with the Williamses, it’s almost a matter of another day, another mind-boggling story. Little is simple with the these sibs. Yes, it was shocking when we heard that Venus had a serious malady and had to withdraw from the the U.S. Open due to a relatively little known autoimmune disease known as Sjorgen’s Syndrome, a condition which she says “affects my energy level and causes fatigue and joint pain.”
As a result of this syndrome, which has symptoms similar to lupus, white blood cells attack the moisture-producing glands. Some four million Americans live with the disease, which is said to be manageable.
Typical symptoms are dry eyes and dry mouth, but Sjögren’s may also impact the kidneys, intestines, central nervous system and cause extreme fatigue and joint pain. All of this is not good news for a 31-year-old athlete who was sidelined for much of the year. Indeed, Venus has played only four tournaments and 11 matches this year. Despite her first round win, her ranking is falling and she leaves the Open with observers wondering whether there is even more drama ahead. Will she be healthy in the long run. Will she go on playing tennis? Will this spur on her adoring younger sister Serena and just what will be the next turn in the stunning lives of the two most dramatic siblings in sports.
