Venus Williams

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Venus Ebone Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an African-American former World No. 1 tennis champion, born in Lynwood, California. She is the daughter of Richard and Oracene Williams and the older sister of another tennis champion, Serena Williams.

Tennis career

When Venus and Serena won the 1999 French Open doubles title, they became the first pair of sisters to win a doubles title in the 20th century. They remain a dominant doubles team when they choose to play.

In 2003, Williams faced her sister Serena Williams at the 2003 Wimbledon finals despite suffering a severe abdominal injury which required medical attention during the match. Venus eventually lost to her sister Serena, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6.

Venus' older sister, Yetunde Price, was killed by gunshots in the Compton area on the morning of September 14, 2003.

The era of domination by the Williams sisters began to close out after the murder of their sister. Both Venus and Serena suffered injuries (Venus with a severe adductor muscle tear) that kept them out of the latter part of the 2003 season. In that time, Belgian players Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne took over as the most dominant players in the game.

Upon their return in 2004, the Williams sisters failed to recapture their previous best, including Venus's controversial defeat in a second round loss to Croatian Karolina Sprem at Wimbledon. The referee of the match, Ted Watts, awarded Sprem an unearned point in the deciding tiebreak. Upon the conclusion of the match, he was quickly relieved of his duties. Her sister, Serena Williams, made the finals of 2004 Wimbledon, losing to Maria Sharapova.

Venus' 2005 season began similarly patchy, with one Tier III title (Istanbul) and a series of unusual losses. However, media attention and public interest in both of the Williams sisters continued with their fashion and interior design companies as well as their reality TV series.

At the 2005 French Open Venus lost in the third-round to 15-year old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva. Drug tests taken of Karatatcheva at the French Open showed that she could have been doping at the time. She has since suffered a two year suspension from the sport.

The following month, Venus reached the 2005 Wimbledon finals without dropping a set. She defeated the defending champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinals in straight sets with a skillful display of speed, athleticism and power. She decisively broke Sharapova's serve four times (Sharapova had lost only one service game in reaching the semifinal). This marked the sixth consecutive year that at least one of the Williams sisters reached the final.

In the longest Wimbledon final in history, Venus overcame a match point against her to triumph over top seed Lindsay Davenport 4-6 7-6(4) 9-7 to claim the 2005 Wimbledon Championship - her third Wimbledon title in six years. This was the first time in 70 years that a player had won after facing match point during the women's championship. In addition, Williams, as the 14th seed in the draw, was the lowest seed to win the title in Wimbledon history.

At the age of 18 she served the fastest serve by any woman (127.4 MPH) to win match point with an ace against Mary Pierce at the semifinals of the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich, Switzerland.

In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 25th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

On January 16, 2006, Williams had a surprising loss in her opener at the Australian Open, losing 6-2, 0-6, 7-9 to Tszvetana Pironkova. It was her earliest loss at the Australian Open.

Venus was out of action from January 16th until April 30th due to injuries. She reached the quarterfinals at the J&S Cup in Warsaw, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova, and also made the semi finals in Rome, defeating Jankovic and Schnyder on the way, but eventually falling to Martina Hingis. Venus reached the quarterfinals of the 2006 French Open where she lost to the up and coming teenager, Nicole Vaidisova 7-6, 1-6, 3-6.

She then competed in the 2006 Championships at Wimbledon where she was touted as one of the top favorites. She survived a scare against Lisa Raymond in the 2nd round where she was two points away from defeat. However, the defeat came sooner than expected as she lost to the 26th seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in three sets by a score of 6-7 (8) 6-4 4-6. Her current ranking is #23.

Off Court Career

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (5)

Lindsay Davenport

Lindsay Davenport

Justine Henin

Serena Williams

Lindsay Davenport

Runner-ups (6)

Martina Hingis

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Serena Williams

Titles (45)

Singles (33)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	1998-02-23	Oklahoma City, USA	Hard	Joannette Kruger (South Africa)	6-3 6-2
2.	1998-03-16	Key Biscayne, USA	Hard	Anna Kournikova (Russia)	2-6 6-4 6-1
3.	1998-09-28	Munich, Germany (Grand Slam Cup)	Hard	Patty Schnyder (Switzerland)	6-2 3-6 6-2
4.	1999-02-22	Oklahoma City, USA	Hard	Amanda Coetzer (South Africa)	6-4 6-0
5.	1999-03-15	Key Biscayne, USA	Hard	Serena Williams (USA)	6-1 4-6 6-4
6.	1999-04-26	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Mary Pierce (France)	6-0 6-3
7.	1999-05-03	Rome, Italy	Clay	Mary Pierce (France)	6-4 6-2
8.	1999-08-23	New Haven, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	6-2 7-5
9.	1999-10-11	Zurich, Switzerland	Hard	Martina Hingis (Switzerland)	6-3 6-4
10.	2000-06-26	Wimbledon, London, Great Britain	Grass	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	6-3 7-63
11.	2000-07-24	Stanford, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	6-1 6-4
12.	2000-07-31	San Diego, USA	Hard	Monica Seles (USA)	6-0 6-73 6-3
13.	2000-08-21	New Haven, USA	Hard	Monica Seles (USA)	6-2 6-4
14.	2000-08-28	US Open, New York, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	6-4 7-5
15.	2000-09-18	The Olympics, Sydney, Australia	Hard	Elena Dementieva (Russia)	6-2 6-4
16.	2001-03-19	Miami, USA	Hard	Jennifer Capriati (USA)	4-6 6-1 7-64
17.	2001-04-30	Hamburg, Germany	Clay	Meghann Shaughnessy (USA)	6-3 6-3
18.	2001-06-25	Wimbledon, London, Great Britain	Grass	Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium)	6-1 3-6 6-0
19.	2001-07-30	San Diego, USA	Hard	Monica Seles (USA)	6-2 6-3
20.	2001-08-20	New Haven, USA	Hard	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	7-66 6-4
21.	2001-08-27	US Open, New York, USA	Hard	Serena Williams (USA)	6-2 6-4
22.	2001-12-31	Gold Coast, Australia	Hard	Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium)	7-5 6-2
23.	2002-02-04	Paris, France	Carpet	Jelena Dokic (Serbia & Montenegro)	walkover
24.	2002-02-11	Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet	Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium)	6-3 5-7 6-3
25.	2002-04-08	Amelia Island	Clay	Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium)	2-6 7-5 7-65
26.	2002-07-22	Stanford, USA	Hard	Kim Clijsters (Belgium)	6-3 6-3
27.	2002-07-29	San Diego, USA	Hard	Jelena Dokic (Serbia & Montenegro)	6-2 6-2
28.	2002-08-19	New Haven	Hard	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	7-5 6-0
29.	2003-02-10	Antwerp, Belgium	Carpet	Kim Clijsters (Belgium)	6-2 6-4
30.	2004-04-12	Charleston, USA	Clay	Conchita Martinez (Spain)	2-6 6-2 6-1
31.	2004-04-26	Warsaw, Poland	Clay	Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia)	6-1 6-4
32.	2005-05-15	Istanbul, Turkey	Clay	Nicole Vaidišová (Czech Republic)	6-3 6-2
33.	2005-06-21	Wimbledon, London, Great Britain	Grass	Lindsay Davenport (USA)	4-6 7-64 9-7

Singles Finalist (21)

• 1997: U.S. Open (lost to M. Hingis)
• 1998: Sydney (lost to A. Sanchez-Vicario)
• 1998: Rome (lost to M. Hingis)
• 1998: Stanford (lost to L. Davenport)
• 1998: Zurich (lost to M. Hingis)
• 1999: Hannover (lost to Jana Novotna)
• 1999: Stanford (lost to L. Davenport)
• 1999: San Diego (lost to M. Hingis)
• 1999: Munich (lost to S. Williams)
• 2000: Linz (lost to L. Davenport)
• 2002: Hamburg (lost to K. Clijsters)

• 2002: French Open (lost to S. Williams)
• 2002: Wimbledon (lost to S. Williams)
• 2002: U.S. Open (lost to S. Williams)
• 2003: Australian Open (lost to S. Williams)
• 2003: Warsaw (lost to A. Mauresmo)
• 2003: Wimbledon (lost to S. Williams)
• 2004: Berlin (lost to A. Mauresmo)
• 2004: Stanford (lost to L. Davenport)
• 2005: Antwerp (lost to A. Mauresmo)
• 2005: Stanford (lost to K. Clijsters)

Performance timeline

Doubles (10)

• 1998: Oklahoma City
• 1998: Zurich
• 1999: Hannover
• 1999: French Open
• 1999: U.S. Open

• 2000: Wimbledon
• 2000: Summer Olympics-Sydney
• 2001: Australian Open
• 2002: Wimbledon
• 2003: Australian Open

Mixed Doubles (2)

• 1998: Australian Open
• 1998: French Open (Defeated sister Serena & partner Luis Lobo of Argentina in Final)

External links

• [Venus Williams Official website]
• [V Starr Interiors website]

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