All in the Family Jewels

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Which brings us to Richard Williams. In a house full of Jehovah's Witnesses, he puffs away on his cigarettes: pure Daddy Williams, an odd duck living in a world defined by Richard's rules. He said he would raise champs by keeping them off the junior circuit, and everyone said he was nuts. Well? He used to upset people by bragging on his girls; now he upsets them by sharing the stage. But look closely. The girls roll their eyes, but do they shove him aside?

They love the old man, and he clearly loves them. The argument here: Richard Williams, crazy as a loon and sly as a fox, is, in the wasteland of girls' tennis dads, an oasis of stability. Peter Graf's tax crimes and social infidelities polluted Steffi's final years as a champion; Pierce's belligerent dad was barred from the stands on the women's tour; at Wimbledon the Australian prodigy Jelena Dokic fought to a semifinal berth only after her father, having stormed the grounds ranting, got himself nabbed by police. The screwiest thing Richard Williams did at the All England Club was to not show up for his daughters' showdown. He couldn't take it; he went for a walk. He returned on Saturday, of course, for the glory.

--With reporting by Kate Noble/London