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Williams sisters kickoff exhibition tour
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-18 09:51
SEATTLE - Venus and Serena Williams sat in awe, smiling and clapping as the
T.T. Minor Tumblers made continuous tumbling runs.
Serena Williams uses a giant tennis racket to
swing at a huge tennis ball duirng a demonstration at Seattle's T.T. Minor
Elementary School as she visited with her sister, Venus Williams,
Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005. [AP] | "I could never
flip like that," Serena told the crowd in the small, packed elementary school
gymnasium Thursday morning. "I used to want to be a gymnast."
The Williams sisters were in Seattle to kickoff the second year of their
charity exhibition tour Thursday night at KeyArena. The tour will also visit
Cleveland (Dec. 1) and Washington D.C. (Dec. 8) after going to Detroit, Atlanta
and Chicago last year. The tour raised $175,000 for various charities last year,
officials said.
The elementary school was the first stop of a busy day for the tennis stars.
Their schedule included a visit to the Ronald McDonald House and a reception
before the exhibition match. The sisters hoped to get a little sightseeing done
in their first visit to Seattle.
"This is a lot of fun. This is the icing on the cake of everything we get to
do," Venus said.
The tour represents the first public tennis the pair have played in months.
Since the U.S. Open, both have been rehabbing left knee injuries. Serena also
battled a left ankle injury that limited her to just 28 matches this year.
Neither sister qualified for the season-ending WTA Championships last week in
Los Angeles. Venus finished the year with a 37-10 record and the title at
Wimbledon, while Serena went 21-7 and won the Australian Open.
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