Winning Weekend for Southland

U.S. tennis players--all of them originally from Southern California--made history at Wimbledon over the weekend with Palos Verdes’ Pete Sampras winning his 13th Grand Slam title, more than any player before him, and Compton’s Venus Williams beating Newport Beach’s Lindsay Davenport to become the first African American woman in 42 years to take the women’s crown. On Monday, Venus teamed up with her kid sister, Serena, to take the women’s doubles title and become part of the first-ever sister act to conquer Wimbledon.

Professional tennis players, no matter how good they are, count for little in the annals of the sport unless they win one of the four Grand Slam tournaments--the Australian, French and U.S. opens and Wimbledon. At the pinnacle of the Pantheon of tennis greats are players like Rod Laver, who won all four titles in one year--and did it twice--and Roy Emerson, who won 12 Grand Slam titles. Sampras walked past them Sunday in winning his 13th.

For Venus Williams, 20, and her sister, Serena, 18, the road from the public courts in Compton to the top of Wimbledon was not easy. It took a lifetime of family hard work and determination to break into a sport still considered country club and predominantly white. Venus followed in the footsteps of Althea Gibson, the only other African American woman to win Wimbledon, in 1957 and 1958, who started out playing paddle tennis in Harlem.

The Williams sisters are keenly aware that their accomplishment at Wimbledon--which propelled them to the top 10 in world ranking--will be an inspiration for children in inner cities and are already speaking of starting junior clinics to get them started. But neither Sampras, 28, nor the Williams sisters are done rewriting the history books. There are more Grand Slams to win.