Changing the dialogue and behaviors around race and equality in sports starts with removing barriers and creating opportunities.
When I was a kid, people reached out and gave me a chance.
There were so many people who were instrumental in helping me get better. They say it takes a village, and the tennis community has been my village. That's why I've always felt that I have a responsibility to give back.
My parents raised me that way: to appreciate what I have and pass it along to others.
With Venus and Serena and their ascension - and you had a lot of kids that saw them and wanted to be like them - it's like any sport, any major athlete, like Michael Jordan in basketball: everybody wanted to be like Mike.
My parents were teachers.
Northwestern was never known as a sports school. I was proud to add a national title to the school.
Everything that I do is with a purpose and intent of wanting to make a difference.
A new sport is being created every day in the U.S.
We want to make tennis look like America when it comes to cultural backgrounds.
I was a player who was vying to do exactly what everyone else was doing, and I happened to be black.
I don't take no for an answer.
I went to Northwestern. I bleed purple and white.
Billie Jean King always was there for me as a role model. She always fought for equality, and that always stood out as I was coming up.
We are a traditional sport in an innovative society, and so trying to make change is always a task.
When we introduced 10-and-under tennis - when we shortened the courts and had smaller rackets and low-compression balls for trying to introduce the sport to youth - a lot of people said we weren't going to succeed.
We make sure that we continue to educate our youth on who Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe were.
What we instill in our kids is that if you work hard, good things will happen.
Serena Williams is the ultimate champion. She knows what it takes to get to the top.
Serena Williams is the greatest tennis player of all time, the greatest female athlete of all time, the greatest athlete of all time.
