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Venus Williams |
Venus Williams has won three Olympic gold medals, one in singles and two in women's doubles. She has won more Olympic gold medals than any other female tennis player. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Williams became only the second player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody in 1924.
With 43 career singles titles, Venus Williams leads active players on the WTA Tour. Her 35-match winning streak from the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2000 Generali Ladies Linz tournament final is the longest winning streak since January 1, 2000. She is also one of only two active WTA players to have made the finals of all four Grand Slams, the other player being her sister Serena Williams.
Venus Williams has played against her sister Serena Williams in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of the 23 matches. They have played against each other in eight Grand Slam singles finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they opposed each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, the first time ever in the open era that the same two players played against each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, let alone sisters. On the doubles side, the pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles playing alongside each other.
Early life
Venus Williams was born in Lynwood, California, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price. She is the second youngest of Oracene's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (died September 14, 2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and younger sister Serena.
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Venus Williams |
Playing style
Venus Williams is a powerful baseliner, equipped with an attacking all-court game. Her game is very well adapted to grass where she feels most comfortable, which is reflected in her five Wimbledon singles titles. Across her career, she has developed into a skillful volleyer and effectively utilizes her long "wingspan" (1.85m) and agility around the net. Venus Williams also has great court coverage using her long reach to play balls that most players would not be able to reach and is capable of hitting outright winners from a defensive position.
Venus Williams holds the record for the fastest serve struck by a woman in a main draw event. At the Zurich Open, she recorded 130 mph (210 km/h). She also holds the record for fastest serve in all four Grand Slam tournaments: 2003 Australian Open quarterfinal – 125 mph (201 km/h), 2007 French Open second round, 2008 Wimbledon final, 2007 US Open first round – 129 mph (208 km/h). At Wimbledon in 2008, her average first serve speed was 115 mph (185 km/h) in the quarterfinal, 116 mph (187 km/h) in the semifinal, and 111 mph (179 km/h) in the final.
Venus Williams has always been a explosive hitter of the ball off the ground, but her backhand is the more consistently reliable of her groundstrokes. Her backhand is equally effective down-the-line or crosscourt (frequently for a set-up approach shot). Her forehand occasionally breaks down under pressure. However, it is still the more powerful of her groundstrokes and yields many winners, from a variety of court positions. Additionally, it is one of the most powerful forehands in the women's game, frequently struck in the 85 – 90 mph (140 km/h) range. In the 2008 Wimbledon women's final, Venus struck a forehand winner measured at 94 mph (IBM/Wimbledon). Only a few women (notably Ivanović, Serena Williams, and Justine Henin) hit to these speeds off the ground.
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Venus Williams |
2011: Injuries and Illness
Venus Williams started 2011 by participating at the Hong Kong Tennis Classic. She lost both her singles matches against Vera Zvonareva and Li Na, but she managed to help Team America to win the silver group. Her next tournament was the 2011 Australian Open where she was the fourth seed. She retired in the second game of her third round match against the 30th seed Andrea Petkovic due to a hip muscle injury. This was Venus Williams' first retirement during a match in a Grand Slam tournament since 1994 and thus ended her record of most Grand Slam matches without ever retiring, with 250 consecutive matches. This was also her first retirement from a match since LA Women's Tennis Championships in Los Angeles in 2004, ending her 294 consecutive matches without retiring.
The injury forced Venus Williams to pull out of the Fed Cup quarterfinal against Belgium, the Dubai Tennis Championships, and the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, where she was the two-time defending champion in both tournaments. She also pulled out of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami causing her ranking to drop to world no. 15. Further, she missed Madrid and Rome. This caused her rankings to drop to world no. 29. Originally scheduled to come back in Brussels, she eventually withdrew from the Premier tournament. Further, she also missed Roland Garros, marking the first Grand Slam tournament since 2003 US Open where neither of the Williams sisters are competing.
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Venus Williams |
Originally scheduled to participate in Toronto and Cincinnati, Venus Williams withdrew due to viral illness. Her next scheduled tournament was the US Open. As an unseeded player, Williams defeated Vesna Dolonts 6–4 6–3 in the first round. She was scheduled to meet 22nd seed Sabine Lisicki in the second round, but withdrew before the match began due to Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease with which she was recently diagnosed. This marked the first time in her career that she did not reach the quarterfinals or better in any of the grandslam tournaments in a season. As a result, her ranking dropped to world no. 105.
Venus Williams did not play for the rest of the year in competitive level; although she did appear in three exhibitions tournaments in November and early December. She played a match against Serena in Colombia which she won in straight sets 6–4, 7–6(5). The week later, the sisters appeared in Milan, Italy to play exhibition against Italian duo Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta. Williams lost both her singles tie-break matches but won the doubles pairing with her sister. Venus Williams then headed to Barbados to play her third exhibition tournament where she lost 4–6, 3–6 to Victoria Azarenka.
She will end the year ranked world no. 102. This is her first finish of a season ranked outside of the world top 50 since 1997.
2012: Comeback to WTA Tour
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Venus Williams |
Sister, Serena Williams
In professional women's tennis, Venus has played her sister Serena 23 times, accumulating a 10–13 record in the series. They are the only women during the open era to have played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals. They have met in a total of eight Grand Slam finals, ahead of the number of finals played by Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and by Helen Wills Moody and Helen Jacobs but behind the record of fourteen finals set by Chris Evert and Martina Navrátilová. Currently Venus has 43 career tennis titles, Serena has 39. Serena has 13 slams and Venus has 7.