Matt Christopher - Serena Williams

Six oclock one warm summer morning in 1984, Richard Williams and his wife, Oracene Price, loaded their yellow Volkswagen minibus with a shopping cart and several milk crates full of tennis balls. They added tennis rackets and a broom. Then they called for their five daughtersYetunde, Isha, Lyndrea, Venus, and Serena. The girls clambered into the van. One of the older ones helped Serena, who was not quite four, into her seat.

The family drove from their modest home in Compton, California, to a nearby public park. Richard pulled into a small lot adjacent to the tennis courts. No one was playing tennis on them, though a few young men lingered on the sidelines, just hanging out. Glass from broken bottles and fast-food wrap pers littered the playing area. Graffiti was spray-painted on the surface.

Undeterred, Richard and Oracene ushered their daughters from the van and retrieved the balls, broom, and rackets. While the three older girls helped sweep up, Serena got into her stroller, and Venus pushed her to one side of the court.

When the surfaces were clear of debris, the four older girls grabbed rackets and hurried onto the courts with their mother. Serena stayed in her stroller. Its what she usually did during these outings.

But not this time. This time, her father held out a racket and motioned for her to join him.

She got out of the stroller and took the racket. It was almost as big as she was and felt heavy in her small hands. She was too excited to notice. After watching her sisters from the sidelines for as long as she could remember, she was finally getting her turn to play.

Her father tossed a tennis ball in the air and hit it gently over the net to her. Swing at the ball, he called out.

She giggled and swung. Her momentum spun her almost completely around. Her white tennis skirt with purple, pink, and gray flowers flared out in a bell. She missed the ball, which bounced and rolled away.

Just swing, her father instructed.

For the next hour they stood in the hot sun, father and daughter, as Williams patiently taught his youngest how to strike a tennis ball with a tennis racket. At first she hit the ball mostly by accident. Richard occasionally stopped, placed his hand around his daughters on the racket, and showed her how to sweep it through the air and hit the ball in the center of the rackets strings. She began to make consistent contact.

When the crates were empty, they gathered up the loose balls, making a game of seeing who could get the most, and started over. Finally, Richard held up a ball. Last one! he called out.

Last one, Serena responded with a laugh. He tapped the ball toward her, and she swung.

Thwack! The ball made a distinctive sound as it struck the rackets strings. Oracene and the other girls cheered. Then they gathered up the equipment, loaded it back into the van, and returned home.

For the four older girls, that early morning tennis practice was like most other morning practices. For the youngest, however, it was the first step toward the making of a champion.

A champion named Serena Williams.