Serena vs. Venus: How a Photograph Spotlighted the Fight for Equality
Chapter One HISTORIC MATCH Evening fell in Flushing Meadows in Queens in New York City but the Arthur Ashe Stadium glowed bright as day under blazing lights It was September 8 2001 and more than 23,000 spectators packed seats surrounding the tennis court below Enormous screens showed close-ups of the opening ceremony taking place Across the country almost 23 million people watched on TV at home For the first time ever the U S Open women’s singles finals match was being broadcast in prime time It had not been squeezed between the men’s semifinals matches in the afternoon as usual The finals match would be unlike any other in the past The Williams Sisters Have a Date With History a New York Times headline that morning had announced The sisters were the first to play each other in a major tournament in 117 years And it was the first time both players in the Grand Slam finals were African-American Photojournalists gathered along the edges of the court their cameras ready to record the historic match On assignment for Reuters News Agency Mike Blake trained his Canon DCS520 digital camera on the sisters Twenty-one-year-old Venus Williams and her sister Serena younger by 15 months walked by in zipped warm-up jackets holding flowers They posed at the net with rackets standing close to one another and smiling
The Williams sisters Venus left and Serena posed before the start of their historic match at the 2001 U S Open Blake’s lens roamed the crowd and settled on Boris Becker of Germany winner of the 1989 U S Open men’s singles Among the celebrities in the stands Blake found and photographed filmmaker Spike Lee whose movies deal with challenges in the lives of African-Americans
Legendary superstar Diana Ross On the court below stood Diana Ross a legendary African-American performer who herself had broken racial barriers As she sang God Bless America the Harlem Gospel Choir swayed behind her in red and blue gowns As the star of the musical trio The Supremes during the 1960s a time of major racial unrest in the United States Ross had been loved by both black and white audiences Before leaving the court Ross embraced a beaming Serena who had made history just two years earlier Just 17 years old then she had won the U S Open women’s singles championship becoming the first black woman since 1958 to win a major tennis tournament Making tennis history was a Williams family affair In 2000 Venus became the first black woman in more than 40
years to win England’s world-famous Wimbledon tournament Tennis officials delighted in the excitement over the Williams sisters tennis match Night tennis in New York under the lights with the world’s top celebrity athletes will provide a tremendous showcase said Arlen Kantarian the chief executive of the U S Tennis Association In fact the match drew 51 percent more TV viewers than the previous year Audiences expected a heroic battle for the trophy They had already seen each Williams sister defeat her opponent in semifinals matches the day before With powerful lenses photojournalists had recorded close-up images of the action on the court Blake had captured the yellow blur of the ball as Serena delivered powerful serves to Martina Hingis of Switzerland Serena scored on every one of her 17 serves in the second set Often Hingis could not even get her racket on the ball Blake photographed Hingis pressing her arm over her face in frustration Praising Serena’s power and strategy after the match Hingis said She played smart She waited for her chances And she hit winners
