Venus Williams

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Venus Wiliams
Country: United States
Residence: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Height: 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight: 160 lb (73 kg)
Plays: Right
Turned pro: October 1994
Highest singles ranking: 1 (February 25, 2002)
Singles titles: 33
Career prize money: $14,815,188
Grand Slam Record
Titles: 5
Australian Open F (2003)
French Open F (2002)
Wimbledon W (2000, '01, '05)
U.S. Open W (2000, '01)
Women's Tennis
Gold 2000 – Singles
Gold 2000 – Doubles

Venus Ebone Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an 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.

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Tennis career

Venus turned professional in the 1990s, then won many important championships, including two Gold medals at the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000, the 1999 French Open doubles (with sister Serena as her partner), and five other doubles and two mixed doubles grand slams. In 2000, she won the Wimbledon championship and the U.S. Open in singles and defended both titles in 2001. In 2002 and 2003, Venus reached five consecutive major finals, and lost all of them to her sister Serena.

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 and Serena's 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.

However, after an embarrassing loss to 15-year old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva at the 2005 French Open, Venus reached the 2005 Wimbledon finals without dropping a set. She defeated the defending champion Maria Sharapova with a blistering display of power tennis in the semifinals in straight sets, decisively breaking 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 Ace 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.

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Titles (43)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (5)
WTA Championships (0)
Olympic Gold (1)
Tier I Event (6)
WTA Tour (23)
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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) Carpet 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 7-6
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 6-7 6-3
13. 2000-08-21 New Haven, USA Hard Monica Seles (USA) 6-2 6-4
14. 2000-08-28 U.S. 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 7-6
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) 7-6 6-4
21. 2001-08-27 U.S. 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 Hard Jelena Dokic (Serbia & Montenegro) W/O
24. 2002-02-11 Antwerp, Belgium Hard 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 7-6
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 Hard 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 Vaidisova (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-2
33. 2005-06-21 Wimbledon, London, Great Britain Grass Lindsay Davenport (USA) 4-6 7-6 9-7
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Singles Finalist (21)

Grand slam events in boldface.

  • 1997: U.S. Open (lost to Martina Hingis)
  • 1998: Sydney (lost to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario)
  • 1998: Rome (lost to Martina Hingis)
  • 1998: Stanford (lost to Lindsay Davenport)
  • 1998: Zurich (lost to Martina Hingis)
  • 1999: Hannover (lost to Jana Novotna)
  • 1999: Stanford (lost to Lindsay Davenport)
  • 1999: San Diego (lost to Martina Hinghs)
  • 1999: Munich (lost to Serena Williams)
  • 2000: Linz (lost to Lindsay Davenport)
  • 2002: Hamburg (lost to Kim Clijsters)
  • 2002: Roland Garros (lost to Serena Williams)
  • 2002: Wimbledon (lost to Serena Williams)
  • 2002: U.S. Open (lost to Serena Williams)
  • 2003: Australian Open (lost to Serena Williams)
  • 2003: Warsaw (lost to Amelie Mauresmo)
  • 2003: Wimbledon (lost to Serena Williams)
  • 2004: Berlin (lost to Amelie Mauresmo)
  • 2004: Stanford (lost to Lindsay Davenport)
  • 2005: Antwerp (lost to Amelie Mauresmo)
  • 2005: Stanford (lost to Kim Clijsters)
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Performance timeline

Tournament 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 Career
Australian Open QF 3r F QF SF - QF QF - 0
French Open 3r QF 4r F 1r QF 4r QF 2r 0
Wimbledon W 2r F F W W QF QF 1r 3
US Open QF 4r - F W W SF SF F 2
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Doubles (10)

Grand slam events in boldface. Doubles partner sister Serena Williams.

  • 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
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External links


Women's Tennis Association | World No. 1's in Women's tennis
Tracy Austin | Jennifer Capriati | Kim Clijsters | Lindsay Davenport | Chris Evert | Steffi Graf | Justine Henin-Hardenne | Martina Hingis | Amélie Mauresmo | Martina Navratilova | Arantxa Sánchez Vicario | Monica Seles | Maria Sharapova | Serena Williams | Venus Williams
All-time leader Steffi Graf spent 377 weeks on top of the rankings.


Tennis at the Summer Olympics | Olympic Champions in Women's tennis
Charlotte Cooper | Dorothea Chambers | Marguerite Broquedis | Suzanne Lenglen | Helen Wills | Steffi Graf | Jennifer Capriati | Lindsay Davenport | Venus Williams | Justine Henin-Hardenne
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Williams"
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