A new biography is out, entitled “Serena Williams: Tennis Champion, Sports Legend, and Cultural Heroine,” written by Merlisa Lawrence Corbett, a tennis columnist and veteran sports journalist whose work has appeared in Bleacher Report, TennisView, Yahoo Sports, and London-based TennisLive.com, while she is also a former reporter for Sports Illustrated. Merlisa approached me to tell me about her book and suggested that I share two excerpts, one about Serena’s unapologetic development into a tennis fashion icon and one about her relationship with sister Venus.
Fashion Forward (Chapter 7)
Serena’s first serious foray into the fashion industry began in 1998, when she signed a $12 million endorsement contract with German sneaker maker Puma.