Hyderabad, July 13 -- Sometimes, in life, fate plays an important role. Some people are dogged by failure at every turn while others are raised high as if by a miracle and achieve phenomenal success. One such person was R. Norris Williams, an American tennis player who was the son of Charles Duane Williams, a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the USA.

Norris was born in 1891 in Switzerland where his father was posted. His father was deeply involved in the formation of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The boy grew up in an atmosphere where tennis was always being discussed so he began playing the game from a young age. When he was studying at Harvard he became the inter-collegiate champion. B...