Venus Williams was born on June 17, 1980 in Lynwood, California. She is an American former World No. 1 tennis champion.
Biography and Career :
She is the daughter of Richard and Oracene Williams and the older sister of another tennis champion,
Serena Williams.
Venus Williams turned professional on October 31st, 1994, 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, Venus Williams won the Wimbledon championship and the U.S. Open in singles and defended both titles in 2001. In 2002 and 2003, Venus reached five co
nsecutive major finals, and lost all of them to her sister Serena.
When Venus Williams 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, Venus 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 Williams' 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 Williams' 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 was doping at the time. Venus Williams has since suffered a two year suspension from the sport.
The following month, Venus Williams reached the 2005 Wimbledon finals without dropping a set. Venus Williams 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 Venus Williams 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 Venus Williams in 25th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
On January 16, 2006, Venus 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 Williams's Dates :
Hank Kuehne (2007 - now)
Venus Williams Image : answers.com
Venus Williams News
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