Encyclopedia
Venus Ebone Starr Williams is a 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.
Early Career
Venus turned professional on October 31, 1994; however she did not play regularly on the tour until 1997. In 1997, while playing the U.S. Open for the first time, Venus reached the final where she lost 6-0, 6-4 to
Martina Hingis. Over the next several years, Venus went on to win many important championships, including two gold medals at the
Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000, the 1999 French Open doubles , 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 successfully defended both grand slam titles in 2001. In 2002 and 2003, Venus reached five major finals but lost all of them to her sister
Serena.
When Venus and Serena won the 1998 French Open doubles title, they became the first pair of sisters to win a doubles title in the
20th century.
2003
In 2003, Williams faced her sister
Serena Williams at the 2003 Wimbledon finals despite suffering a severe abdominal injury that required medical attention during the match. Venus eventually lost to her sister Serena, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Venus' older sister,
Yetunde Price, was murdered in the Compton, California area on the morning of September 14, 2003. The era of domination by the Williams sisters began to close out after the murder. Following Wimbledon in 2003, both Venus and Serena suffered injuries that kept them out of the last half of the 2003 season.
2004
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.
2005
Venus' 2005 season began similarly patchy, with one Tier III title 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. Karatantcheva subsequently failed a doping test, resulting in her being suspended from the sport for two years.
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. She decisively broke Sharapova's serve four times . 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, 9-7 to claim her third Wimbledon title. 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 ladies' title in Wimbledon history.
In 2005,
TENNIS Magazine put her in 25th place in its list of
40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
2006
On January 16, 2006, Williams had a surprising loss in her first round match at the
Australian Open, losing 2-6, 6-0, 9-7 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 semifinals 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 rising teenager, Nicole Vaidisova 6-7, 6-1, 6-3.
She then competed in the 2006
Wimbledon where she was touted as one of the favorites. She survived a scare against fellow American Lisa Raymond in the 2nd round where she was two points away from defeat and then unexpectedly lost in the 3rd round to the 26th seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in three sets . Her current ranking is #31. She announced on August 25 that she would not be playing in the
2006 US Open due to a recurring wrist injury.
Her next scheduled tournament is the Fortis Championships, a tier II event in Luxembourg. The event starts on September 25th.
She and her sister Serena continue to support each other and are often in the crowds at each others' matches.
Off Court Career
Venus is a businesswoman and CEO of her interior design firm "V Starr Interiors" located in Jupiter, Florida. Williams' company garnered prominence by designing the set of the "Tavis Smiley Show" on PBS, designed the Olympic athletes' apartments as a part of the US bid package for New York to host the 2012 games, and designed residences and businesses in the Palm Beach, Florida area.
Cultural References
Welsh Indie band
Super Furry Animals have a track on their 2003 album Phantom Power called Venus and Serena dedicated to the sisters.
In the single "Signs" by
Snoop Dogg and
Justin Timberlake there is a reference to the sisters as:
"Just like Venus and Serena, in the Wimbledon arena."David Foster Wallace mentions Venus by name, twice, in the opening chapter of his 1996 novel
Infinite Jest.
Grand Slam singles finals
Wins
Runner-ups
| Year | Championship | Opponent in Final | Score in Final |
1997 | U.S. Open | Martina Hingis | 6-0, 6-4 | 2002 | French Open | Serena Williams | 7-5, 6-3 | 2002 | Wimbledon | Serena Williams | 7-6, 6-3 | 2002 | U.S. Open | Serena Williams | 6-4, 6-3 | 2003 | Australian Open | Serena Williams | 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 | 2003 | Wimbledon | Serena Williams | 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 |
Titles
Singles
| Legend | | Grand Slam | | WTA Championships | | Olympic Gold | | Tier I Event | | WTA Tour |
| | Titles by Surface | | Hard | | Clay | | Grass | | Carpet |
|
| No. | Date | Tournament | Surface | Opponent in the final | Score |
| 1. | 1998-02-23 | Oklahoma City, USA | Hard | | 6-3, 6-2 |
| 2. | 1998-03-16 | Key Biscayne, USA | Hard | Anna Kournikova | 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 |
| 3. | 1998-09-28 | Munich, Germany | Hard | Patty Schnyder | 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 |
| 4. | 1999-02-22 | Oklahoma City, USA | Hard | | 6-4, 6-0 |
| 5. | 1999-03-15 | Key Biscayne, USA | Hard | Serena Williams | 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 |
| 6. | 1999-04-26 | Hamburg, Germany | Clay | Mary Pierce | 6-0, 6-3 |
| 7. | 1999-05-03 | Rome, Italy | Clay | Mary Pierce | 6-4, 6-2 |
| 8. | 1999-08-23 | New Haven, USA | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 6-2, 7-5 |
| 9. | 1999-10-11 | Zurich, Switzerland | Hard | Martina Hingis | 6-3 6-4 |
| 10. | 2000-06-26 | Wimbledon, London, Great Britain | Grass | Lindsay Davenport | 6-3, 7-6 |
| 11. | 2000-07-24 | Stanford, USA | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 6-1, 6-4 |
| 12. | 2000-07-31 | San Diego, USA | Hard | Monica Seles | 6-0, 6-7, 6-3 |
| 13. | 2000-08-21 | New Haven, USA | Hard | Monica Seles | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 14. | 2000-08-28 | US Open, New York, USA | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 6-4, 7-5 |
| 15. | 2000-09-18 | The Olympics, Sydney, Australia | Hard | Elena Dementieva | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 16. | 2001-03-19 | Miami, USA | Hard | Jennifer Capriati | 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 |
| 17. | 2001-04-30 | Hamburg, Germany | Clay | | 6-3, 6-3 |
| 18. | 2001-06-25 | Wimbledon, London, Great Britain | Grass | Justine Henin-Hardenne | 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 |
| 19. | 2001-07-30 | San Diego, USA | Hard | Monica Seles | 6-2, 6-3 |
| 20. | 2001-08-20 | New Haven, USA | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 7-6, 6-4 |
| 21. | 2001-08-27 | US Open, New York, USA | Hard | Serena Williams | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 22. | 2001-12-31 | Gold Coast, Australia | Hard | Justine Henin-Hardenne | 7-5, 6-2 |
| 23. | 2002-02-04 | Paris, France | Carpet | | walkover |
| 24. | 2002-02-11 | Antwerp, Belgium | Carpet | Justine Henin-Hardenne | 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 |
| 25. | 2002-04-08 | Amelia Island | Clay | Justine Henin-Hardenne | 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 |
| 26. | 2002-07-22 | Stanford, USA | Hard | Kim Clijsters | 6-3, 6-3 |
| 27. | 2002-07-29 | San Diego, USA | Hard | | 6-2, 6-2 |
| 28. | 2002-08-19 | New Haven | Hard | Lindsay Davenport | 7-5, 6-0 |
| 29. | 2003-02-10 | Antwerp, Belgium | Carpet | Kim Clijsters | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 30. | 2004-04-12 | Charleston, USA | Clay | Conchita Martinez | 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 |
| 31. | 2004-04-26 | Warsaw, Poland | Clay | Svetlana Kuznetsova | 6-1, 6-4 |
| 32. | 2005-05-15 | Istanbul, Turkey | Clay | Nicole Vaidišová | 6-3, 6-2 |
| 33. | 2005-06-21 | Wimbledon, London, Great Britain | Grass | Lindsay Davenport | 4-6, 7-6, 9-7 |
Singles Finalist
Grand slam events in boldface.- 1997: U.S. Open
- 1998: Sydney
- 1998: Rome
- 1998: Stanford
- 1998: Zurich
- 1999: Hannover
- 1999: Stanford
- 1999: San Diego
- 1999: Munich
- 2000: Linz
- 2002: Hamburg
- 2002: French Open
- 2002: Wimbledon
- 2002: U.S. Open
- 2003: Australian Open
- 2003: Warsaw
- 2003: Wimbledon
- 2004: Berlin
- 2004: Stanford
- 2005: Antwerp
- 2005: Stanford
Performance timeline
To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2006 U.S. Open .| Tournament | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | Career |
|---|
| Australian Open | A | A | A | A | QF | QF | A | SF | QF | F | 3R | 4R | 1R | 0 / 8 |
| French Open | A | A | A | 2R | QF | 4R | QF | 1R | F | 4R | QF | 3R | QF | 0 / 10 |
| Wimbledon | A | A | A | 1R | QF | QF | W | W | F | F | 2R | W | 3R | 3 / 10 |
| US Open | A | A | A | F | SF | SF | W | W | F | A | 4R | QF | A | 2 / 8 |
| Grand Slam Win-Loss | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 7-3 | 17-4 | 16-4 | 18-1 | 19-2 | 22-4 | 15-3 | 10-4 | 16-3 | 6-3 | 146-31 |
| Yearly GS Championships / Total Played | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 2 / 3 | 2 / 4 | 0 / 4 | 0 / 3 | 0 / 4 | 1 / 4 | 0 / 3 | 5 / 36 |
| WTA Tour Championships | A | A | A | A | A | SF | A | A | SF | A | A | A | | 0 / 2 |
| Tokyo | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | QF | A | A | 0 / 1 |
| Indian Wells | A | A | 1R | QF | SF | A | A | SF | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 4 |
| Miami | A | A | A | 3R | W | W | A | W | SF | 4R | QF | SF | A | 3 / 8 |
| Charleston | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | W | 3R | A | 1 / 2 |
| Berlin | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 3R | A | A | F | A | A | 0 / 2 |
| Rome | A | A | A | A | F | W | 3R | A | A | A | A | A | SF | 1 / 4 |
| San Diego1 | A | A | 1R | 2R | QF | F | W | W | W | A | A | A | A | 3 / 7 |
| Montreal/Toronto | A | 1R | A | 1R | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | A | 0 / 2 |
| Moscow | A | A | A | QF | SF | A | A | A | 2R | A | QF | A | | 0 / 4 |
| Zurich | A | A | A | QF | F | W | A | A | A | A | QF | A | | 1 / 4 |
| Tournaments played | 1 | 3 | 5 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 6 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 134 |
| Finals reached | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 53 |
| Tournaments Won | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 33 |
| Hardcourt Win-Loss | 0-0 | 0-2 | 7-3 | 18-7 | 35-7 | 35-6 | 25-0 | 32-2 | 33-4 | 8-2 | 21-9 | 15-5 | 0-1 | 229-48 |
| Clay Win-Loss | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 4-2 | 9-2 | 12-2 | 6-3 | 5-2 | 14-2 | 6-2 | 17-1 | 9-3 | 10-3 | 92-23 |
| Grass Win-Loss | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 4-2 | 4-2 | 4-1 | 7-0 | 7-0 | 6-1 | 6-1 | 1-1 | 7-0 | 2-1 | 48-9 |
| Carpet Win-Loss | 1-1 | 2-1 | 0-1 | 6-3 | 5-2 | 7-3 | 3-1 | 2-1 | 9-2 | 4-0 | 3-1 | 3-1 | 0-0 | 45-17 |
| Overall Win-Loss | 1-1 | 2-3 | 7-5 | 32-14 | 53-13 | 58-12 | 41-4 | 46-5 | 62-9 | 24-5 | 42-12 | 34-9 | 12-5 | 414-972 |
| Year End Ranking | - | 204 | 204 | 22 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 10 | | N/A |
A = did not participate in the tournament
1 The San Diego tournament achieved
Tier I status only in 2004.
2 If Fed Cup participation is included, overall win-loss record stands at 424-99
.
Doubles
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-Sydney2001: Australian Open
2002: Wimbledon
2003: Australian Open
Mixed Doubles
Mixed Doubles partner, fellow American Justin Gimelstob.
Australian Open
1998: French Open
External links
