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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Shaping America's Top Tennis Player

Serena  (left) and Richard Williams

09/09/2014

Shaping America's Top Tennis Player

BBC World Service - Outlook, Shaping America's Top Tennis Player

Richard Williams, the father of tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams

As Serena Williams confirms her place as one of America's greatest tennis players, her father tells us how he planned her career before she was even born.

Richard Williams, father of tennis stars Venus and Serena, talks about how he devised a master plan to make his daughters into the champions they are today.  His plan included moving them to the ghetto.  Serena has now been recognised as one of America's greatest tennis players. 

Sonia Van Meter could be leaving Planet Earth and not coming back.  She has been shortlisted for what would be a one-way mission to Mars.  If successful, Sonia will be flying to Mars in 2024 leaving behind her husband Jason Stanford and her two stepchildren.  Sonia and Jason tell us about their extraordinary adventure. 

When the reclusive Brazilian mining millionaire Bernardo Paz had a heart attack in 1995, he decided to use the money he had made to create a vast botanical garden and fill it with art.
Now his vision, called Inhotim, is the most important contemporary art space in Brazil.  Gibby Zobel goes to meet him.

One of the biggest British bands of the 1990s was Pulp who came from Sheffield in the North of England. Fronted by the quirky singer Jarvis Cocker, they had hits with songs like Common People.  At the height of their fame, the band's keyboard player Candida Doyle was keeping a secret - she was suffering from arthritis, the painful condition which causes inflammation of the joints and bones.  She tells us how it affected her life. 

(Picture: Serena and Richard Williams
Picture of Serena Williams winning the 2014 US Open Credit: Julian Finney/ Getty Images)

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