"You got a fast car" - Venus Williams turns nostalgic; shares old photo of herself and Serena Williams enjoying themselves in an arcade
Venus Williams recently turned nostalgic as she shared a photo from the archives featuring herself and her sister Serena all smiles at a gaming arcade. In the photo, the sisters can be seen sporting their iconic beads, which garnered both support and criticism in equal measure.
Venus Williams, 44 right now, is still an active player on the WTA Tour, even though her 2023 and 2024 seasons have been ravaged by injuries. Sister Serena, meanwhile, bid farewell to tennis in 2022 after suffering an almighty upset [5-7, 7-6(4), 1-6] at the hands of Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the US Open. Since retiring from the sport, Serena has established herself as an accomplished businesswoman and given birth to her second child, daughter Adira River.
Recently, the elder Williams sister took to Instagram to share an old photo of herself and Serena smiling wide while looking at the camera at a gaming arcade. The sisters, who spent their formative years learning tennis through competing with each other, were seemingly in the mood to compete when the photo was taken as they were playing an arcade racing game.
The former World No. 1 added a caption to her post as well.
"You got a fast car... (heart emoji)," Williams wrote on Instagram, presumably in reference to Tracy Chapman's 1988 hit 'Fast Car'.
Venus Williams' beads once got her into trouble at the Australian Open
At the 1999 Australian Open, 19-year-old Venus Williams reached the quarterfinals, where she squared off against the more experienced Lindsay Davenport, who was the top seed in the women's singles draw as well. Controversy erupted during the match when Williams' beads fell off while she was in her service motion.
The chair umpire adjudged the beads falling off to be a disturbance caused by the American and gave her a point penalty. Davenport eventually went on to win the match emphatically, defeating her compatriot 6-4, 6-0.
At a press conference after the match, Williams expressed her anguish at the umpire handing her a point penalty. According to her, such incidents had not frequently occurred in the past for her to have received the punishment.
"I don't think it was a very fair call because I, in the past, have not been notorious for beads falling out of my hair. It's not an incident that occurs frequently. I've never had such treatment before from any other umpire or any other match. I don't think it's a real distraction. It'll be difficult if they (opponents) are focusing on my hair and focusing less on the ball...I shouldn't have to change for any other circumstances. I like my hair," Williams said.
Williams' last outing came at the 2024 Miami Open, where she was comprehensively beaten in the first round by Russian Diana Shnaider.