Richard Williams

Venus and Serena Williams have brought excitement and "a ton of money" to women's tennis, and the family deserves more of the WTA Tour's windfall, their father said Tuesday. "Venus and Serena are not sharing in the revenues packages that the WTA is collecting because of them," Richard Williams said. "It's very unfair, and something should be done. I should share in that package too." Williams made his remarks in the wake of complaints last week by golfer Tiger Woods about marketing rights.

Richard McWilliam, hailed for revolutionizing the trading card and sports memorabilia industry as a co-founder and chief executive officer of Carlsbad-based Upper Deck Co., has died. He was 59. McWilliam died Saturday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe. While no cause of death has been announced, the company noted that McWilliam had a history of heart disease and had undergone heart surgery in 2008. McWilliam co-founded Upper Deck in 1989 and immediately set about challenging the leaders of an industry whose origins date to the late 19th century, when cards with pictures of baseball players were sold in packs of chewing tobacco.

Richard L. Williams, 78, the man who dubbed the B-17 bomber--the workhorse of World War II--the "Flying Fortress." Assigned to write a Seattle Times caption on a picture of the B-299, a B-17 prototype, on July 17, 1935, Williams wrote: "Declared to be the largest land plane ever built in America, this 15-ton flying fortress, built by the Boeing Aircraft Co. under Army specifications, today was ready to test its wings." The tag stuck to the plane that was used extensively during the war. In St.

TORONTO -- In an about-face, Venus and Serena Williams have chosen not to attend Tuesday's Toronto world premiere of the documentary "Venus and Serena," which they authorized and participated in for the past 20 months, because they are reportedly unhappy with the finished product. As recently as several days ago, the tennis superstars had planned to come to the Toronto International Film Festival to support the movie made by veteran broadcast journalists Maiken Baird and Michelle Major, according to a person familiar with the Williamses' plans who asked not to be identified because the person had not been authorized to speak on their behalf.

The two should arrange a time and place, then greet with a firm handshake and a hug. They should pull up a chair, crack open a few cold ones, engage in some small chit-chat, then ask each other the same question: So how are the kids? Richard Williams and Earl Woods would probably enjoy each other's company. They are the proudest pops in sports. Imagine how golf and tennis would be if one raised a lamb instead of a Tiger, and the other had a pair of boys instead.

Richard Williams is hitting tennis balls high into the air with a 9-year-old boy when he sees a player on another court hit a shot into the net. "Hey, Hamburger," Williams hollers. "Didn't I just get done telling you not to hit the ball so flat? Hit the ball into the air--then give me 20 hoppers." To Williams, all young tennis players are "hamburgers." He says the nickname fits. If Williams thinks one of his players didn't give enough effort, the player is made to do jumping jacks, or "hoppers."

For more than a quarter of a century, Oscar-winning animator Richard Williams labored to bring forth his signature film, one that would rival the best of Disney. And then it was gone. His epic work-in-progress, originally titled "The Thief and the Cobbler," was seized in 1992 by a completion bond company, which ensured investors that the film would be completed on time and on budget. Last week, Miramax Films released the wide-screen fable, retitled "Arabian Knight."

TORONTO -- In an about-face, Venus and Serena Williams have chosen not to attend Tuesday's Toronto world premiere of the documentary "Venus and Serena," which they authorized and participated in for the past 20 months, because they are reportedly unhappy with the finished product. As recently as several days ago, the tennis superstars had planned to come to the Toronto International Film Festival to support the movie made by veteran broadcast journalists Maiken Baird and Michelle Major, according to a person familiar with the Williamses' plans who asked not to be identified because the person had not been authorized to speak on their behalf.

If Marge Schott can be correctly forced from baseball for bad behavior and questionable racist tendencies, why can't the USTA do something about Richard Williams? It is his right to ruin his daughters' careers, but it is not his right to ruin tennis. GARRY KLUGER, Los Angeles

Mississippi State basketball coach Richard Williams, who led the Bulldogs to the school's only Final Four appearance in 1996, announced his retirement Thursday. His retirement was announced in a release from the Mississippi State athletic department. Williams just completed his 12th season, the longest tenure in the Southeastern Conference. He had a record of 191-163, including a school-record 26 victories in 1995-96, two SEC Western Division championships and three NCAA appearances.

WIMBLEDON, England -- Serena Williams served her first ace in the first game of her Wimbledon semifinal match Thursday against second-seeded Victoria Azarenka. It was up the middle, and it raised a dust ball on Centre Court. And it was a trend-setter. By the time Williams' 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory over Azarenka was complete, Williams had served 24 aces. That broke the Wimbledon record that Williams had set last week against Zheng Jie by one. And Williams played three sets against Zheng.

The California desert sun can be relentlessly unforgiving. So too, it seems, can the tennis powerhouse Williams sisters. Eleven years have passed since Serena Williams was greeted with a booming chorus of boos in the women's finals and left for good. Venus did the same. And with the two-week BNP Paribas Open underway this week at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, still no sisters. "Even now, all these years later, we continue to boycott the event," Serena wrote in her 2009 autobiography.

Who was that girl who made her Wimbledon debut at age 17 in 1997 with a big future and little purple-and-green hair beads? "I don't even know how that girl won her first-round match," Venus Williams said Saturday. "She didn't understand anything. She didn't understand how to play. She could hit the ball hard." And who was that young woman who first won Wimbledon at age 20 in 2000 from an ascendant No. 5 ranking as the first African American female champion since Althea Gibson in 1958?

With Venus Williams winning Wimbledon a half-century after Althea Gibson's 1957 title, Williams' father and coach, Richard Williams, said there had been no racial progress in those 50 years. "It's no different then than it is now, in my opinion," he said. "If you're past 10 years old, you know what I'm talking about."

With Serena Williams "ready to step up and grab a ... wild bear right now" in the words of her father, Richard, the French Open awaits her bout with an ingenious pipsqueak. The quarterfinal that resembles a final has materialized to lend Tuesday the promise of fracas. Serena Williams, the Australian Open champion seeded No. 8 here, will play No. 1 Justine Henin, the twice-defending French champion, for the first time on clay since 2003, when Henin, seeded No. 4 , upended Williams, then No.

Fred Haynes reached back in time Tuesday, remembering leaving the tennis courts at night after a long day of practice with his kids -- grocery shopping beckoned -- and there were others still out there practicing. That would have been Richard Williams and his daughters, Venus and Serena. Years later, Haynes' daughter, Angela, walked off Court 2 at Wimbledon shortly after 8 p.m. here, receiving a rousing ovation.

A jury was selected in Springfield, Mass., to hear the trial of three avowed revolutionaries accused of plotting to overthrow the government. Opening arguments were set for today. Defendants Raymond Luc Levasseur, 42, of Maine; his wife, Patricia Gros Levasseur, 40, and Richard Williams, 41, of Boston, face charges of seditious conspiracy, or plotting to topple the government by force; racketeering conspiracy and racketeering enterprise.

Two Compton women made noise Wednesday at the U.S. Open. On the grand stage at Arthur Ashe Stadium Court, Serena Williams played tennis in micro mini shorts and had to send a runner to the locker room to fetch her purse. Why? Williams had forgotten her earrings in her purse. "I really believe in accessorizing," said Williams, who has talked far more about clothes than tennis this week and who conquered Lindsay Lee-Waters in a second-round match, 6-4, 6-3.

The emotions shifted so abruptly, so suddenly. "Allez," Amelie Mauresmo would shout. After a crafty forehand volley or a whip-like one-handed backhand cut through the swirling wind and wrong-footed Serena Williams, Mauresmo, her ponytail waving, would bellow out her rallying cry in French and pump her fists. "Ahhh, yes." That was the primal cry from Williams.