Meet Serena, controversial fashion icon and tennis star

Nairobi’s Sadili Oval Sports Club has hosted scores of sports celebrities over the years, including Ethiopia’s multiple Olympic and world distance running champion, Kenenisa Bekele, and Jacques Rogge, the Belgian surgeon who is President of the powerful International Olympic Committee.

But the residents of this Langata address, famous for nurturing fledgling sports, and especially tennis, never thought they would one day host and rub shoulders with the world’s leading women’s tennis players, Serena Williams, their mentor and role model.

Besides being unstoppable on tennis courts, Serena is also a fashion icon and has suffered criticism from the sport’s conservatives, especially at Wimbledon, by “overstepping the boundaries of decent dressing” at tennis matches.

Her sometimes-outrageous on-court outfits have won her quite a number of admirers with the purists not too happy on the other hand.

Leather looking catsuit

Like her leather-looking catsuit at the 2002 US Open and Denim skirt and suits at the same tournament four years later. Or the trench coach she warmed up with at this year’s Wimbledon championships.

Serena – a powerful baseline player with a notoriously strong serve - secured a degree in fashion at the age of 18 and launched her own fashion company, “Aneres”, Serena spelt backwards.

“I did this because I love fashion and I know it’s something that I’m good at and I can do for a very long time,” she says.

In 2004, Serena signed a $40 million sportswear deal with Nike and has also raked in astronomical figures from showbiz, having featured in numerous television shows including “The Simpsons”, “My Wife and Kids”, “ER” and “Law and Order”, among others.

The five-year Nike deal was described as the richest ever for a female athlete.

Thanks to advice from the William Morris agency, Serena also landed roles in the movie “Beauty Shop” and the drama “Street Time.”

Agencies reported in 2002 that a survey of the public relations industry deemed Serena and Tiger Woods the most attractive spokespersons among athletes.

“We’ll work very closely with Serena, not only as a tennis player and an athlete, but also as an athlete to develop products that will support her tennis performance and help grow the game,” Nike spokesman Dave Mingey said at the 2005 contract signing ceremony that elevated the tennis star to another level.

We’re all very excited about the opportunity to see her input in the development of products, both for on the court and off.”

Socially, Serena is currently said to be dating rapper Common, after previous affairs with, among others, NBA forward Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat and Brett Ratnen.

Serena has also appeared in the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit edition, her attractive figure luring scores to tennis matches. She controversially posed nude last year for the “Jane Magazine” again attracting a great deal of attention.

The American star’s visit this weekend sparked off excitement around the Oval, with the young players keeping their fingers crossed, hoping they would be among the 70 short-listed from a huge group of 1,400 young players to benefit from yesterday morning’s brief coaching and mentorship sessions by the former world number one.

Understandably so, because Serena, the younger of the Williams’ tennis-playing sisters, is not just an ordinary tennis player.

She is currently ranked second in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) with her elder sister, Venus, at number six. Serb Jela Jankovic leads the standings with 4,710 points to Serena’s 3,866.

Serena’s story, along with her sister’s, has inspired millions of young people worldwide.

The Sadili Oval was mooted in 1989 and started operating four years later having been developed on land reclaimed from an open sewer.

The idea of this sports facility has earned its developers many accolades, including a special award during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games for their transformation of an environmental hazard into a facility of use by the community.

The Sadili Oval’s tennis programme has been modelled specifically along the success lines of the Williams’ sisters, and that’s why Serena’s visit over the weekend was of special significance, says the Oval’s director Elizabeth Odera.

“We have been modelling our kids along the lines of the Serena and Venus success story,” Ms Odera says. “They all want to succeed the same way the Williams sisters have succeeded.”
The young players at Sadili have even copied some of Serena’s tennis strokes, however difficult they are, in their quest to emulate the American star.

“We needed a figure to emulate and that’s why eight years ago we settled on the Williams sisters at the Oval’s role models,” Ms Odera adds.

“We were impressed that the Williamses have been able to stay strong in the face of adversity and we have all watched, with great admiration, the way the pair has struggled to succeed, both in school and in the game of tennis.

Significance

“Of special significance to the Sadili tennis programme is the way the sisters’ parents have admirably blended education and tennis which fits in very well with our vision.

“All the kids were excited that finally they would get a chance to see Serena, up close, and for me, it has been a most difficult task in selecting the 70 out of 1,400 players to benefit from a session by Serena at the Oval — naturally the kids who missed out are very disappointed.”

Serena is in Kenya as part of telecommunication firm Hewlett-Packard’s corporate social responsibility programme in which she also visited Johannesburg as HP’s Global Ambassador.
She seizes the closest opportunity to extol the virtues of a good education in tandem with sport.

“All my life, my father and mother stressed the need of education,” Serena recalls in her website. “My sisters and I were not allowed to do any fun extra-curricular activities if we got bad grades.

“A bad grade being defined as ‘C’ or lower. We were only allowed to bring home As and Bs. Anything less was unacceptable.”

Born Serena Jameka Williams in a family of four sisters in Saginaw, Michigan, on September 26, 1981, to Richard and Oracene, the burly tennis star’s career highlights include 18 Grand Slam titles – nine in the singles, seven in the women’s doubles and two in the mixed doubles.

The resident of Palm Beach, California, is on record as the most recent player to have held all four Grand Slam titles at a go, no easy task.

The Grand Slam events are the US Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon Championships and the French Open on the Roland Garros clay.

“As a Global Ambassador, I’m travelling to different countries to promote HP’s products as well as participate in local charities to help people,” Serena says in her website.

In Johannesburg, she worked with Starfishgate Charity that cares for children with Aids.

“These kids are mostly born with Aids and they don’t have the care they need or can live with,” she says.

“It was so sad to see them in this situation. They had so much hope and love in their eyes, yet a thing of sadness behind their pupils, bringing me to tears.”

On her Kenya tour, besides inspiring the rising talent at Sadili, Serena – who also runs the Serena Williams Foundation - opened a school in Makueni this weekend.

“Last November, I went to Africa and saw things over there that are simply not fair,” Serena says in her website. “Kids could not go to school because their parents cannot afford $1.00 (Sh76) a week. I was mortified.’’

The tennis star is currently constructing a school in Senegal that will be controlled by her foundation.

“The kids will have a chance to be the best that they can be and more...,” she says. “I love Africa and those are my roots, but I want to do more.

“I live in the USA and although my roots are in Africa, there are tons of people that do not have an opportunity to go to a good school either.”

Her tour of Kenya will, no doubt, raise the profile of tennis a notch higher.

“The kids were incredibly ecstatic when they heard that Serena was coming,” said Ms Odera. “They finally got an opportunity to see their role model.

“Her session at Sadili was purely motivational and we are sure that it will go a great way in inspiring the kids to reach greater heights in tennis.”