Women who give back: Serena, Venus, Keys, Stephens

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said: “Sports don’t build character; they reveal it.” While he was mostly referring to performance on the court, today’s athletes have found a number of ways to act on and affect what’s important to them.

Many of the world’s top women’s tennis players have used their unique platforms and resources to give back to their communities or causes they care about. In honor of Women’s History Month in March, below is a snapshot of just a few of the women’s players currently on tour whose benevolence has been as prominent as their forehand or backhand.

Sloane Stephens – Well before she became a Grand Slam champion at the 2017 US Open, Sloane Stephens was championing underserved kids and communities through her namesake foundation. Launched in 2013, the Sloane Stephens Foundation has been involved in a considerable number of charitable projects, led by educational and junior tennis programs that have impacted upwards of 6,000 students in communities such as Compton and Fresno, Calif., and Broward County, Fla. Stephens has also used her platform to support the Soles4Souls shoe donation campaign and has given back to Boys and Girls Clubs, children’s hospitals and shelters in the aforementioned communities.

During her 10-month injury layoff between 2016 and 2017, after which she won the US Open in the second tournament of her comeback, she dedicated a significant portion of that time to foundation work.  

"I was playing with kids every day and going to after school programs, and playing tennis on Saturdays with the kids in my foundation," Stephens told Baseline in 2018. “It's something I really, really enjoy. I love giving back, I love kids and I love giving them the opportunity.”

Madison Keys – The 2017 US Open finalist and five-time WTA tournament champion has been leading efforts to promote kindness since first becoming involved with the FearlesslyGirl project in 2016 to help girls and their parents navigate adolescence. Keys branched out to launch Kindness Wins in 2020 in an effort to feature a more inclusive promotion of a generally kinder world, bringing on two-time Olympic gold medalist alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin and eight-time Paralympic medalist Oksana Masters to serve as ‘champion’ partners. Though a launch event scheduled for the 2020 Volvo Car Open in Charleston was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the inaugural ‘Kindness Wins Day’ was celebrated on May 22 and six people were awarded ‘Medals of Kindness’ in 2020 as recognition for their selflessness toward others in times of struggle.

“Spreading kindness is and always will be my passion,” Keys said. “Everyone has struggled and been negatively impacted by something in their past, including me. I want everyone to know they’re not alone and that there is something we can do about it.”

Serena and Venus Williams – The two legendary sisters have given the game so much in their storied careers, and in 2016 they teamed up to establish the Williams Sisters Fund to combine their efforts on philanthropy. One of their first projects was to open the Yetunde Price Resource Center in their hometown of Compton, Calif., which is named after their late sister who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2003. Designed to promote individual and community-wide healing and resiliency, the YPRC "works to ensure that victims of direct or indirect senseless violence have complete access to existing resources and that where there is a dearth in services, new resources are created,” working with partner organizations and offering a curriculum of programs and workshops.

Among Serena’s myriad off-the-court ventures, she also serves as a UNICEF Global Ambassador and established her own Serena Williams Fund, through which she has helped build schools in Africa, fund college scholarships for underprivileged students and combat street violence, to scratch the surface. Recently, Serena also donated a portion of her jewelry line’s proceeds to benefit Black-owned business during Black History Month, and she’s also invested in projects aimed at improving maternal health of Black women in America. 

Vania King –  A former world No. 3 in doubles who won the Wimbledon and US Open women’s doubles titles back to back in 2010, King plans to retire as a player in 2021. She’s seemingly already built the foundation of her post-playing career, having founded and launched the ‘Serving Up Hope’ program to bring access to tennis and community development to poverty-stricken areas in Kampala, Uganda. King, who is also now serving her first term as a Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors, spent nearly seven weeks in Kampala throughout October and November and joined forces with former player Hans Podlipnik, who was pioneering similar efforts in poor areas of his native Santiago, Chile.

“Being a professional tennis player gave me the opportunity to visit and experience many countries and cultures,” King said. “Through my travels, I realized that the life I was born in and live in are luxuries that few have. I believe that we all have a right to health, happiness and equal opportunity and through tennis, Serving Up Hope is a vehicle in which we can support these ideals.”

Ashleigh Barty – Even before she achieved her current world No. 1 ranking  or won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2019, Barty was working her role as Tennis Australia’s National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador to help grow the game among the continent’s indigenous people. Herself a descendent of the indigenous Ngarigo people, Barty has met and hit with indigenous students over the years, with the program culminating in an $80,000-plus grant from Tennis Australia to fund indigenous programs in Barty’s native Queensland.

"I think it’s incredible to see the pathways that are now available to Indigenous youth… and the opportunities they have to develop in whatever profession they choose,” she told the WTA. “It's all about giving opportunity to Indigenous youth and providing pathways through tennis to show what our sport can do for our culture.”

Gabriela Dabrowski – A two-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion and Top-10 doubles player, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski has gotten involved with the WTA Charities’ longtime efforts to support the Special Olympics. Even though several tournaments that had Special Olympics-related events planned were put on hold during 2020, Dabrowski had the opportunity to video chat with Special Olympians. 

“It’s within the last few years I’ve been learning a lot more about myself and what I value and what my beliefs are about certain things. And I’m starting to really grasp the concept that a lot of our internal happiness comes from serving others,” she told the WTA. 

Also noteworthy: Longtime Top-10 player Elina Svitolina formed her own foundation to encourage children’s development through the game of tennis, earning praise from President George W. Bush for her work at his namesake tennis center in Midland, Texas; Naomi Osaka, the burgeoning face of the women’s game, started her own foundation in late 2019 and has frequently given back to the IOA Center, the school her parents built in her father’s native Haiti; Former world No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza is an ambassador for the ‘Room to Read’ charity, which promotes literacy in young women in Asia and Africa; Former world No. 1 Simona Halep started her own foundation that helps fund girls’ hockey in Romania and supports the needs of infants born prematurely.