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| A little boy plays tennis with Serena Photo: I4News |
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| Young players at the training court with the world tennis champions Photo: Yahoo News |
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| A lesson from the great champion |
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| Venus tours the city |
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| Serena 31 and Venus 33 at the conference |
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| With the governor of Lagos State, Mr Raji Fashola Photo: I4News |
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| Futures leaders in training Photo: Yahoo News |
Lagos, NIGERIA - Seven time grand slam winner Venus and Wimbledon Champion Serena Williams arrived in Lagos Tuesday 30th October to the surprise and delight of local residents. The sisters are in Africa on an exhibition tour and would travel to South Africa where they will play a friendly match. The sisters, accompanied by their mother Oracene Price, are in Nigeria's largest city for the week and have been promoting women's rights and training school children for tennis.
The Williams sisters spent some time with the governor of Lagos State Raji Fashola who presented them with the state's official plaque. They later visited various parts of the capital including the tennis club where they held a coaching event for several dozen school children. They also attended a puberty class for girls in a local school.
As two of the most successful tennis players in the world, the William's sisters share 22 major women’s singles championships between them.
"We're here to empower young girls and let them know that if you dare to dream, you can achieve any goal you want to," Serena said at an earlier press conference held by the Breaking The Mould initiative they are representing.
"We were able to break the mould when tennis was very dominated by white people. To have a face of colour come in and dominate showed it doesn't matter what your background is and where you come from, if you have dreams and goals, that's all that matters," Serena said.
The initiative is aimed at encouraging "more women to break moulds that have stood between them and their potential," the organisation said in a statement.
According to a British Council study released in May, Nigeria ranks 118 out of 134 countries on the Gender Equality Index.
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