Sister act: Venus and Serena Williams set the rules in a new book of advice for young women.

"FRIENDSHIP IS LIKE TENNIS--IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BACK AND FORTH," THE WILLIAMS SISTERS TELL TEENS IN THEIR NEW BOOK, Venus & Serena, Serving From the Hip: 10 Rules for Living, Loving and Winning (Houghton Mifflin Company, March 2005).

"It talks about a lot of stuff--every issue that preteens and teens might have to deal with," Serena says of their book. "We consider ourselves role models, and we wanted to do something positive for kids."

"I think it's amazing," Venus adds. "It's one of the most important things that we've done in our lives. It was something that we had to do to pass on our knowledge, what we've gone through."

In the book, the Williamses explain how they racked up so many Grand Slams, the world's top tennis tournaments; how they cope with being sidelined by injuries; and how they deal with attempts to squash not only their "Sister Slams," when they compete against each other or double-team opponents, but also their very sisterhood.

The Good With the Bad

THE WILLIAMS SISTERS HAVE BEEN CREDITED WITH INCREASING THE popularity of women's tennis by injecting it with freshness, flavor and fierce play. They've also endured their share of player-hating, bad calls, occasional boos from the stands, scary letters and phony e mails. The eldest of the two even inspired the title of a book: Venus Envy: A Sensational Season Inside the Women's Tennis Tour by L. Jon Wertheim (HarperCollins, August 2001). For the most part, they shrug their chiseled shoulders and count their blessings so that they can literally keep their eyes on the prize.

"You have to have faith and have a good family or good friends--building a good dream team and a support system," Serena told BIBR. "It's really the only way you can get through things."

She and her sister have also drawn criticism for recent slumps and questions about whether they're distracted by their forays into fashion and acting, including a reality show that made its debut in the summer on the ABC Family Channel. Once ranked in the top two spots worldwide, Serena had slipped to No. 4 by late June and Venus to No. 16. This summer, Venus was knocked out of the French Open in the third round by a 15-year-old Bulgarian, 52nd-ranked Sesil Karatantcheva, and Serena succumbed to 85th-ranked Jill Craybas of the United States in the same round at Wimbledon weeks later. However, Venus enacted some payback and beat Craybas to advance to the semifinals before going on to win a hard-fought third Wimbledon championship on July 2, beating the top-ranked Lindsay Davenport.

Anything that their father, Richard Williams, does is always fodder for naysayers, like his predictions early on that his baby girls would grow up to dominate the elite sport of tennis, or his later decision to take them off the tour for a while so that they could concentrate on their education and avoid flaming out like other young athletes.

The proud papa has also been knocked for exercising his bragging rights and for those victory dances, especially the one after Venus' first Wimbledon win in 2000 when he held up a sign saying "It's Venus' party, and no one's invited." Then, after her victory at the U.S. Open that year, Williams made the following pronouncement, wrote Doug Smith, former tennis reporter for USA Today: "She's going to another planet. Well, I don't think she's going on (another) planet because we're not letting anyone up there, huh. She'll probably bring the planet Venus down here, and she'll be on it by herself."

One of Venus and Serena's biggest challenges, however, was dealing with the murder of their half-sister, Yetunde Price, who was shot in the head while sitting in a car in Compton, California, in September 2003. Whenever Venus and Serena are asked about their own role models, they are quick to cite each other or their older sisters. Although Price is mentioned in their book, they do not discuss her death.

The Rule Book

BESIDES TIPS ON FRIENDSHIPS, THE BOOK INCLUDES NINE OTHER "SISTER Rules" such as "It's Better to Give," "Why School Is Cool" and "Don't Rush a Crush" in an upbeat, you-can-do-it-too tone. The 133-page paperback, written with Hilary Beard, also has a list of volunteer projects, a sample menu in "Cafe Venus" exercise tips, "Hygiene 101: So Fresh and So Clean" and an introduction by their mother, Oracene Price, who is now divorced from their father. The Williamses, who have traveled the world and speak at least four languages between them, encourage readers to break out of their comfort zones. They suggest exploring nature centers, museums, foreign films, libraries and bookstores in "Our Top 10 Dates With Ourselves."

Working around their schedules to complete the book was tough, they admit, and they compared notes with their older sisters to get those childhood memories down straight. They're already working E on a sequel of what they call "sister tales," pointing out that 10 tips are hardly enough. One day, they will get around to their autobiographies, but they indicate that they're in no hurry. Memoirs and retirements are the farthest things from their minds at the moment.

Time Out for Reading

THE WILLIAMSES, WHOSE FIRST BOOK WAS How TO PLAY TENNIS: LEARN HOW to Play the Williams Sisters' Way (DK Publishing, August 2004), say that they love to read. Books pass back and forth between them, and they'll also pore over recommendations from their informal, close-knit book club. Favorite authors include Jeffrey Archer, Nelson DeMille and Marian Keyes--"required reading," says Venus, who also singled out The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin, 1988) and Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks (Perennial, 1986). She says she will pick up anything from history to nonsense books. "I read whatever they sell in the bookstores at the airports," Serena quips.

Downtime is precious for the sisters, who believe in having a life off the court, but have nevertheless been consumed by tennis. Their entree into the sport is the stuff of legend: their father's dream for them before they were even born and the story of their mother's playing tennis while they were in the womb.

Both parents were self-taught through books and videos. "Dad and Morn would load us, our racquets, a broom, and a bunch of milk crates filled with old tennis balls into our red and white Volkswagen van, and we'd head off to practice tennis," Serena writes in the book.

"But unlike some families, we weren't going to a country club. We went to a local park, where grass grew in the cracks of the asphalt courts and there was so much broken glass and drug paraphernalia on the courts that we started each practice by sweeping them off. The conditions may not have been the best, but these courts became our second home."

From there, they moved to the top of children's tennis in southern California and then took on the world. Venus and Serena, at 6 feet 1 and 5 feet 10, respectively, became known for their speed, power and athleticism with 100-plus-mph serves and wide wingspans. Although big sister Venus was initially the dominant one, it was Serena who won the pair's first Grand Slam at the U.S. Open in 1999. It was also the first Grand Slain won by an African American woman since Althea Gibson's back-to-back U.S. and Wimbledon championships in 1957 and 1958. Venus repeated Gibson's feat, however, with her own back-to-back wins in 2000 and 2001. The rest, as they say, is a continued history of headaches for their competitors.

On Becoming Individuals

ON AND OFF THE COURT, THEIR INDIVIDUALITY HAS BEEN SO PRONOUNCED of late that it's almost hard to believe that Serena once virtually imitated Venus' every move. "There's nothing wrong with trying to be like your big sister," Serena now says. "I had to find myself." Being her own person and on her own "feels good," the 24-year-old acknowledges. "That was really important for me."

Of all the top tennis players, the Williamses perhaps have strayed the farthest from the traditional white outfits. Serena, in particular, has caused a stir with her black studded tennis ensembles, the black Shox Boots from her Nike collection and the infamous black cat suit that was roundly deemed bootylicious. Then there's the peekaboo, fuchsia dress widely circulated in paparazzi shots in cyberland.

Serena and Venus are serious about Fashion. They've studied it in college and put on fashion shows featuring their designs. Not only have they strutted their stuff on the runway, but they've appeared in music videos, commercials, television shows and feature films. Add their own reality TV show to the mix: Venus and Serena: For Real, which began on ABC Family on July 20 as BIBR went to press. "We are thrilled to be working with these dynamic, internationally renowned, talented stars," Paul Lee, the president of ABC Family, said in a statement. "This series will give viewers a window into their very exciting off-court lives."

The sisters refused to divulge details about the show before its air date, other than to say it was fun. "We were laughing the whole time," Venus recalls. "There's some action and drama."

Serena got a dose of reality on MTV's Punk'd, when producer/actor Ashton Kutcher lured her into playing Good Samaritan by thinking that she was coming to the rescue of a woman whose baby had been spirited away in an SUV driven by her young nephew. "I'm a really nice kid, and I just want the best for everybody," Serena says. "It was weird, because I never thought I was going to be punked. They could have gotten me with anything. It was kind of funny."

All in all, the Williamses are happy with their lives and want more of the same. "My happiest moment will be when I graduate," Venus, 25, adds. "I'm almost there."

They credit their success to a strong work ethic and the support of their dream team, especially their parents, who stressed values, education and the importance of loving themselves. All of this inoculated them against peer pressure, they claim, and kept them on the right path.

"It's beautiful," Venus says. "The best part is all the hard work that you put in."

Serena agrees. "I'm most proud of getting through it all--it's not easy--and being able to wake up another day," she adds. "I would like to be remembered as someone who was just a good person and had a good heart, regardless of what I do on the court or how many Grand Slams I've won."

Yanick Rice Lamb teaches journalism at Howard University and tries to play tennis. She is the coauthor of Born to Win: The Authorized Biography of Althea Gibson (Wiley, August, 2004), which includes an Afterword by Venus Williams, and Rise and Fly: Tall Tales and Mostly True Rules of Bid Whist (Three Rivers Press, August 2005).