A second trial over
breach-of-contract allegations against tennis stars Venus and Serena
Williams is scheduled to begin Friday.
The first ended in a mistrial in December after more than two weeks of testimony.
Promoters Carol Clarke and Keith Rhodes, owners of the company CCKR, allege in their lawsuit that Richard Williams, the stars' father, committed his daughters to play in a 2001 Battle of the Sexes match and that they reneged on the deal.
The sisters and their father are named in the lawsuit seeking unspecified damages in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
The Williams sisters claim their father could not make such a commitment because he did not have the authority to enter into the deal.
The promoters said the tournament could have made about US$45 million, of which 80 per cent was to go to Richard Williams Tennis & Associates, which is owned by the sisters' father.
Richard Williams has acknowledged drawing up the terms of a potential contract for the ``Battle of the Sexes'' event, but he insists that he told the promoters they would have to go through the IMG sports agency, which represents Venus and Serena, to finalize any agreement.
Clarke and Rhodes insist that the sisters' father represented himself as their manager and agreed to the deal on their behalf.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
