Squash Magazine: The Other Williams Sisters

The Other Williams Sisters Clare and Kate Whipple Aren't Too Lonely at the Top By Chris Newbound Photos by Kyle Acebo

Watching a pair of roughly equal squash players warming up or playing a few points against one another in a match, you'd be hard-pressed to say immediately who is the better player, let alone the dominate one. In squash, as in other racquet sports, it's a game of small advantages that, over the course of a match, eventually turn into more significant ones. A more consistent, tighter rail. A lower, more deceptive drop. A quicker first step, superior touch, focus, fitness, footwork or just plain experience. Too many intangibles to even list. It's the difference, especially in the women's game, between being a number one player on a top college team, and being number two. Clare (above, left) and Kate (above, right) Whipple wouldn't really argue, not even with each other most of the time. These Williams sisters (no, not the more famous tennis-playing Venus and Serena) currently play number one and two at Williams. Clare, a junior, who played number three as a freshman, and number two last year, has had to move on up this year. Filling the big shoes of last year's departing senior Adrienne Ellman and stepping up into the number one slot, however, hasn't been an easy transition. “Playing number one,” admits Clare, “is definitely harder than playing number two. I'm a little disappointed. I want to be winning more matches for the team than I have been.” Meanwhile little sis Kate, a freshman, has exceeded all expectations and has happily shadowed Clare all the way to the top, or, almost to the top. “I really wanted to play number four,” says the younger Whipple. “I played number seven on my high school team last year [Greenwich Academy, where Clare also played], but I didn't really work as hard as I should have. I really wanted to work hard and play higher up [this year at Williams]. So I played a lot in the fall and during the summer and so I guess I kind of surprised myself as well as Zafi.” Williams' coach Zafi Levy concurs. Coming into the season, he says he expected Kate to play around seven or eight. But, “Kate is exceeding expectations by a mile.” While Clare is still the much stronger player, “Kate,” he says, “maximizes her ability. Every time she plays she leaves it all on the court.” Such a quick rise, might spell trouble when playing other schools' number two players, especially in someone as young as Kate. But so far she's been winning more than her share of tough matches. She has only lost, in fact, to such squash powerhouses as Yale, Penn and Trinity so far this season, and has consistently come up with big, tough wins, like the one she put up against top rival Dartmouth in January. Against lower-ranked Cornell later on in the month, Kate dominated, disposing of her opponent decisively by allowing only two points in each game. But as far as any uneasiness from older sis concerning her younger sister's abrupt ascent, you won't find any. Number three on the team, Jaye Gregory, a sophomore who played with both sisters growing up in Rye, New York, says that the sibling rivalry between these sisters isn't really an issue. “Most sisters who are really competitive, who have those sorts of issues with one another, always go to different schools,” says Gregory. “I'm happy Kate's playing number two,” says Clare. “And there are definitely more pros than cons to having us on the same team. For one thing, I get to see her every day. And she's a really great person to play against. It's good for me to try and beat her because we both know each other's games so well.” While the same could hold true for Kate, she admits that she still gets occasionally thrown by her older sister being a lefty. “Against right-handers, I love the forehand cross, especially from the front of the court, and that goes to their backhands. But against lefties, and my sister, that plays right into her forehand and Clare can just cut it off.” Clare also hits a harder ball and also looks—at least at this point in their development—to have the better touch. In some of her early season matches, Clare's losses, a few of them quite close, may have been more about an inability to focus than her actual shot-making, especially at certain crucial times of the match. Like when she is ahead as she was in the Dartmouth match that she lost in five after being up 2-0. A certain tentativeness about taking the T would crop up and she would forget to utilize her very strong volley, an ability to cut the ball off and end a point quickly—a problem that Clare believes she's now starting to address. Kate, on the other hand, at five feet nine (Clare is just slightly shorter) uses her long arms and long strides to dig balls out near the front wall, often surprising opponents with such “gets.” She can be a bit loose and gangly on the court at times, almost like an overgrown teenager, which at 18, you could argue she still is. But while she can sometimes play a bit unconsciously, it can also be an asset for her because she never seems intimidated and never backs down, not even when she might be overmatched early on in a contest. While the sisters must occasionally spar in challenge matches against one another, they square off less often than other team members do. Not because they're sisters, but because Clare, at number one, usually practices against some of the lower-ranked men. When they do play one another, however, neither one exactly backs down. While the matches are usually without incident, they admit to having to ask coach Levy to referee on occasion. “It's a problem,” says Clare, “because it's a lot easier to yell at her than at someone else.” “And we did have our first fight at a squash practice the other day,” Clare recalls. The incident had to do with a shared car that Clare considers more hers than Kate's and that Kate wanted to borrow. “Finally one of the other girls said, 'Would you guys please just shut up.'” That's about it as far as any problems between these two. Maybe because while Kate has surprised others by moving swiftly past them on the team, she isn't about to succeed Clare for the top spot—or at least not anytime soon. “She's definitely a level above me,” says Kate, “but depending on the day, she can win in three or I can sometimes take her to five.” “You did take a game from me last time we played, didn't you?” says Clare. “If she's having a bad day,” says Kate. “Which doesn't happen very much.” Their father, George, who started playing squash in his 20s, first introduced his daughters to the game, but it was actually Kate who picked up the game before her elder sister. Sometime in the second grade as she recalls. And there is another sister, Kelly, 15, who also plays squash. Still, older sis Clare has always been a bit ahead. “The pattern,” says Kate with a sigh, “is me always trying to catch up. But maybe that's the way it should be. Because I am the younger one, I wouldn't want to be the stronger one. It does give me something to strive for.” Little sister Serena couldn't agree with you more. (This is the third installment of a four-part series chronicling the Williams' squash season. The articles can be found in the January-April 2004 editions of Squash Magazine.) Author Chris Newbound was a ranked junior tennis player growing up in southern California who didn't learn how to play squash until his future wife taught him when he was in graduate school. He can brag that he's the current No. 3 player on the town squash ladder in Williamstown, and during the course of writing this series was able to somehow upset one of the current top eight Williams players. The player shall remain nameless to protect the innocent.

The Other Williams Sisters

Clare and Kate Whipple Aren't Too Lonely at the Top