Winner of 14 Grand Slam titles including four at Wimbledon and two at the U.S. Open, six women's doubles, and two mixed doubles titles, women in question is none other than ace tennis player Venus Williams. 15 months older than her equally talented sister Serean Williams, Venus was born on 17 June 1980 to parents Richard and mother Oracene.
Unlike other fellow tennis player, Venus and Serena did not spend their childhood hitting balls in prestigious clubs but they practiced the games in public courts in Crompton, California, city mostly hit by social violence and gang warfare. Coached by her self-taught father Richard, girls often hear gun-shots during their practice session, but they showed the natural aptitude for the games and soon advanced to amateur competitions. While they were playing the junior events, father Richard dropped the girls from the junior competitions fearing excessive game stress and racial hostility.
Tennis Career
Venus’s active professional career started in 1998 and she won her first mixed doubles title at the Australian Open and the French Open playing with partner Justin Gimelstob.
Venus won the Grand Slam Cup and the tournaments in Miami and Oklahoma City and move up to the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments and ended the year ranking in number 5th position in world’s women ranking.
The year 2000 proved to be a break through year for Venus as she grabbed 35 consecutive singles matches and five tournaments that includes win at Wimbledon defeating Martina Hingis in the quarterfinals, sister Serena in the semifinals, and defending champion Lindsay Davenport in the final, U.S. Open defeating Hingis (#1) in the semifinals and Davenport (#2) in the final and Olympic games in Sydney defeating Sanchez Vicario in the quarterfinals, Seles in the semifinals, and Elena Dementieva in the final. Her remarkable performance was appreciated by Sports Illustrated magazine and named Venus sportswoman of the Year.
Teaming up with sister Serena, Venus won Wimbledon doubles title for the first time in her career, gold medal in Sydney Olympic and she was the second player in the history of tennis and Olympic games to win the women's singles and doubles titles at the same Olympic event.
Venus saw no big achievement in year 2003, she defeated Daniela Hantuchova and Kim Clijsters at Proximus Diamond Games in Antwerp, Belgium to win this game for second consecutive year. At the Wimbledon, she beat Clijsters in the semifinal but unfortunately lost to sister Serean 4–6, 6–4, 6–2 in the final. Both sisters suffer injuries and remain out of the court for rest of the year.
Venus started off the year 2005 with an early defeat in the third round of Australian Open against Alicia Molik. Later she went on to win Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina defeating Conchita Martinez and Tier II tournament in Warsaw defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova. She defeated sister Serena for the first time since 2001 U.S. Open at the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami.
At the French Open, she met with an unexpected defeat in the third round by 15-year old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva, who was later dropped out of the tournament for two years failing the doping test. At the Wimbledon, she defeated defending champion Sharapova in semifinal 7–6(2), 6–1 but was dismissed in the final by Davenport. Venus reached the quarterfinal of U.S. Open defeating sister Serena in the fourth round but later defeated by Clijsters 4–6, 7–5, 6–1.
Beginning of 2006 session remained gloomy for Venus, at the Australian Open, she was forced out of the game in the first round by Tszvetana Pironkova 2–6, 6–0, 9–7, that was the record of her early departure in Australian Open. Wrist injury plagued her rest of her tournaments; she lost at Wimbledon in the third round but admitted the loss was not due to wrist pain, but she did not play at the U.S. Open Series and U.S. Open due to recurring wrist injury.
She could not recuperate properly from her wrist injury and withdrew herself from playing matches in 2007 Australian Open. But as soon as she was declared fit to throw the smash, she returned on court and claimed her 34th single title at the Cellular South Cup in Memphis, Tennessee, defeating top-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel in the final.
Williams then appeared on the court at Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida where she was dismissed by top seeded Maria Sharapova 2–6, 6–2, 7–5 in the third round. This mix and match of loss and win resulted in the improvement of her ranking up in the 32nd position. Again in Tier I Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina, Venus played against Jelena Janković in the semifinal but was forced out of the game by Jelena, even though her ranking came up to world no. 22.
In 2007, Venus became a lowest seeded and lowest ranked Wimbledon champ again breaking the record set by herself in 2005 by defeating Marion Bartoli 6–4, 6–1 in the final, Ana Ivanović in semifinal and Kuznetsova in the quarterfinal.
Then she got singles victory but doubles defeat at Fed Cup representing U.S. Then in Tier I Acura Classic in San Diego, Williams reached to the quarterfinal but lost to to Chakvetadze 6–7, 7–6, 6–2. Subsequently she moved up in ranking and federation placed in 14th position.
Venus is known for fastest serve and she has made a record at French Open by hitting 206 km/h (128.8 mph) serve, she was again succeeded in creating a record at the U.S. Open Grand Slam event by throwing 129 mph serve in the opening round. At U.S Open, she defeated Janković in the quarterfinals 4–6, 6–1, 7–6(4) but she was forced out of the tournament in the semifinal by eventual champion, Justine Henin, 7–6, 6–4.
Year 2008 opened with a success in an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong, where she defeated Maria Sharapova in the final 6–4, 6–3. At the Australian Open, Venus played quarterfinal match against Ana Ivanović and she lost. While in women’s doubles title, she along with her sister Serean reached the quarterfinals but defeated to 2006 Australian Open champions Zi Yan and Jie Zheng 3–6, 6–4, 6–2. After this game, she found herself on top of all fellow players and regained her world no. 1 ranking which she has once reached in May 2002.
Again at Tier I Qatar Total Open in Doha, Willimas was shown the way out in the third round by 18 year old Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. She got a wild card entry to play in doubles tournament and teamed with Wozniacki but the due was forced down in the second round fourth-seeded Taipei pair of Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang.
Venus and sister Serena saw defeat again at the Tier II Canara Bank Bangalore (India) Open and in singles, she lost to Serena in the semifinal. She could no move beyond the quarterfinal level at Tier I Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Florida and lost to Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-4.
