Venus Williams Biography

Venus Williams

Born: June 17, 1980, Lynwood, California, United States

Height: 1.85 m

Weight: 75 kg

Grand slams: 7

Siblings: Serena Williams, Yetunde Price, Isha Price, Lyndrea Price

Parents: Oracene Price, Richard Williams

Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 36 in singles as of July 29, 2013. She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on February 25, 2002, becoming the first black woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era. She is credited as changing the women's game and ushering a new, modern era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour. She is also regarded as the best grass court player of her generation and she is widely considered as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis.

Her seven Grand Slam singles titles tie her for twelfth on the all time list, and is more than any other active female player except for her younger sister Serena Williams. Her 22 overall Grand Slam titles consist of seven in singles, thirteen in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. Her five Wimbledon singles titles tie her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list. Venus Williams is one of only four women in the open era to have won five or more Wimbledon singles titles. Between the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments held. She is one of only five women in the open era to win 200 or more main draw Grand Slam singles matches.

Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in women's doubles. She and her sister Serena have won more Olympic gold medals than any other female tennis players. 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 44 career singles titles, Williams is behind only her sister Serena amongst 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 three active WTA players to have made the finals of all four Grand Slams, the other players being her sister Serena Williams and Russian Maria Sharapova.

Venus Williams has played against her sister Serena Williams in 24 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 14 of the 24 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 in the Open Era that the same two players played against each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals. On the doubles side, the pair have won 13 Grand Slam doubles titles playing alongside each other.

Early life

Venus Ebony Starr Williams was born in Lynwood, California, to Richard Williams and Oracene Price.

The Williams family moved from Compton, California, to West Palm Beach, when she was ten, so that Venus and Serena could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who took notice of the sisters and who would provide additional coaching. He did not always agree with Williams's father but respected that "he treated his daughters like kids, allowed them to be little girls". Richard stopped sending his daughters to national junior tennis tournaments when Williams was eleven, since he wanted them to take it slow and focus on school work. Another motivation was racial, as he had allegedly heard parents of other players talk negatively about the Williams sisters during tournaments. At that time, Venus Williams held a 63–0 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among the under-12 players in Southern California.In 1995, Richard pulled his daughters out of Macci's academy, and from then on took over all coaching at their home.

Playing style

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 in eight of the last ten years. Across her career, she has developed into a skillful volleyer and effectively utilizes her long "wingspan" (1.85m) and agility around the net. 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 in 2008, she recorded 130 mph (209.2 km/h).She also holds the record for fastest serve in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments: 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.

Williams has always been an 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 Ivanovic, Serena Williams, and Justine Henin) hit to these speeds off the ground.

The low bounces that grass produces tend to make her first serve an even more powerful weapon. Her movement on grass is also among the best on the WTA tour. Clay is Williams's weakest surface although she has suffered numerous injuries prior to the French Open. Her movement is suspect and her powerful serve and groundstrokes are less effective. Still, she has won numerous titles on clay.

Fight for equal prize money

Despite years of protesting by tennis pioneer Billie Jean King and others, in 2005 the French Open and Wimbledon still refused to pay women's and men's players equally through all rounds. In 2005, Williams met with officials from both tournaments, arguing that female tennis players should be paid as much as male tennis players. Although WTA tour President Larry Scott commented that she left "a very meaningful impression", Williams's demands were rejected.

The turning point was an essay published in The Times on the eve of Wimbledon in 2006. In it, Williams accused Wimbledon of being on the "wrong side of history", writing:

I feel so strongly that Wimbledon's stance devalues the principle of meritocracy and diminishes the years of hard work that women on the tour have put into becoming professional tennis players.

I believe that athletes – especially female athletes in the world's leading sport for women – should serve as role models. The message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling. My fear is that Wimbledon is loudly and clearly sending the opposite message....

Wimbledon has argued that women's tennis is worth less for a variety of reasons; it says, for example, that because men play a best of five sets game they work harder for their prize money.

This argument just doesn’t make sense; first of all, women players would be happy to play five sets matches in grand slam tournaments....

Secondly, tennis is unique in the world of professional sports. No other sport has men and women competing for a grand slam championship on the same stage, at the same time. So in the eyes of the general public the men's and women's games have the same value.

Third, ... we enjoy huge and equal celebrity and are paid for the value we deliver to broadcasters and spectators, not the amount of time we spend on the stage. And, for the record, the ladies’ final at Wimbledon in 2005 lasted 45 minutes longer than the men's....

Wimbledon has justified treating women as second class because we do more for the tournament. The argument goes that the top women – who are more likely also to play doubles matches than their male peers – earn more than the top men if you count singles, doubles and mixed doubles prize money. So the more we support the tournament, the more unequally we should be treated! But doubles and mixed doubles are separate events from the singles competition. Is Wimbledon suggesting that, if the top women withdrew from the doubles events, that then we would deserve equal prize money in singles? And how then does the All England Club explain why the pot of women's doubles prize money is nearly £130,000 smaller than the men's doubles prize money?

I intend to keep doing everything I can until Billie Jean's original dream of equality is made real. It's a shame that the name of the greatest tournament in tennis, an event that should be a positive symbol for the sport, is tarnished.

In response, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of Parliament publicly endorsed Williams's arguments. Later that year, the Women's Tennis Association and UNESCO teamed for a campaign to promote gender equality in sports, asking Williams to lead the campaign.Under enormous pressure, Wimbledon announced in February 2007 that it would award equal prize money to all competitors in all rounds, and the French Open followed suit a day later. In the aftermath, the Chicago Sun-Times cited Williams as "the single factor" that "changed the minds of the boys" and a leader whose "willingness to take a public stand separates her not only from most of her female peers, but also from our most celebrated male athletes." Williams herself commented, "Somewhere in the world a little girl is dreaming of holding a giant trophy in her hands and being viewed as an equal to boys who have similar dreams."

Venus herself became the first woman to benefit from the equalization of prize money at Wimbledon, as she won the 2007 tournament and was awarded the same amount as the male winner Roger Federer. Venus' fight for equality was documented in the ESPN Films' Nine for IX film, Venus Vs. It premiered on July 2, 2013.

Personal life

On December 13, 2007, Williams received her associate degree in Fashion Design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

Beginning the fall 2011 semester, Williams began pursuing a bachelor's degree in the school of business through an online degree program at Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana. Her ultimate goal is to get an MBA in the near future.

Williams's longtime boyfriend, pro golfer Hank Kuehne, had been a visible presence since Wimbledon 2007. "He's a great guy", Williams said. "He understands competition. He's very supportive. I love having him here and everyone else in the box, too." After rumors of engagement, the couple broke up in 2010, after which Kuehne dated and (in May 2011) married his current wife Andy.

In 2003, Venus and Serena Williams's older sister Yetunde Price, 31, was shot dead in Compton, California near the courts on which the sisters once practiced. Price was the Williams sisters' personal assistant. The Williams family issued this statement shortly after the death: "We are extremely shocked, saddened and devastated by the shooting death of our beloved Yetunde. She was our nucleus and our rock. She was a personal assistant, confidante, and adviser to her sisters, and her death leaves a void that can never be filled. Our grief is overwhelming, and this is the saddest day of our lives."

In 2011, Williams was forced to withdraw from the US Open before her second-round match, following a Sjögren's syndrome diagnosis.

After the diagnosis, she resolved to eat a vegan diet in order to decrease inflammation and reduce the energy-sapping symptoms of the disease through the reduction of calories, pesticides and sugars.

Venus is now dating Cuban model, Elio Pis. Pis and Williams met when he modeled for her fashion line EleVen and has been a visible presence at her tournaments lately

Entrepreneur

Williams is the chief executive officer of her interior design firm "V Starr Interiors" located in Jupiter, Florida. Williams's company designed the set of the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS, the Olympic athletes' apartments as part of New York City's failed bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, and residences and businesses in the Palm Beach, Florida area.

In 2001, Williams was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by the Ladies Home Journal.

In 2007, Williams teamed with retailer Steve & Barry's to launch her own fashion line EleVen. "I love fashion and the idea that I am using my design education to actually create clothing and footwear that I will wear on and off the tennis court is a dream come true for me. The vision has been to create a collection that will allow women to enjoy an active lifestyle while remaining fashionable at the same time. I'm thrilled with everything we've created to launch EleVen."

In June 2009, Venus was named 77th in the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities compiled by Forbes magazine.

In August 2009, Venus Williams became part-owners of the Miami Dolphins with sister Serena Williams. The announcement was made during a press conference overlooking the practice field. This made Venus and indeed her sister Serena the first African-American females to obtain ownership in an NFL franchise. Stephan Ross, the majority owner of the Dolphins, said "We are thrilled to have Venus and Serena join the Dolphins as limited partners. They are among the most admired athletes in the world and have become global ambassadors for the game of tennis. Their addition to our ownership group further reflects our commitment to connect with aggressively and embrace the great diversity that makes South Florida a multicultural gem."

In late June 2010, Venus Williams released her first book, entitled Come to Win; on How Sports Can Help You Top Your Profession, which she co-wrote with Kelly E. Carter. In promotion of the book she embarked on a tour around America in support of the release, whilst also appearing on several talk shows including The Early Show and Good Morning America. This gave her a place on the top 5 The New York Times Best Seller List.

Equipment

Coach: Richard Williams, Oracene Price

Racquet: Wilson BLX Blade Team (104)

Clothing: EleVen

Shoes: Nike

Awards

1995

Sports Image Foundation Award for conducting tennis clinics in low-income areas

1997

WTA Newcomer of the Year

September's Olympic Committee Female Athlete

1998

Tennis Magazine's Most Improved Player

2000

WTA Player of the Year

WTA Doubles Team of the Year (with Serena Williams)

Sports Illustrated for Women's Sportswoman of the Year

Teen Choice Awards – Extraordinary Achievement Award

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.62)

Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year for team sports (with Serena Williams)

2001

Best Female Tennis Player ESPY Award

EMMA Best Sport Personality Award

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.57)

2002

Best Female Athlete ESPY Award

Best Female Tennis Player ESPY Award

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.60)

2003

34th NAACP Image Awards' President's Award

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.65)

2004

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.1)

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.77)

2005

Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year Award

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.81)

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.3)

2006

Best Female Tennis Player ESPY Award

BET's Best Female Athlete of the Year

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.1)

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.90)

2007

Gitanjali Diamond Award

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.3)

2008

Whirlpool 6th Sense Player of the Year Award

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.3)

2009

Anti-Defamation League Americanism Award

Whirlpool 6th Sense Player of the Year Award

ITF Women's Doubles World Champion (with Serena Williams)

WTA Doubles Team of the Year (with Serena Williams)

WTA Fan Favorite Doubles Team of the Year (with Serena Williams)

Doha 21st Century Leaders Awards – Outstanding Leadership

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.77)

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.2)

2010

Caesars Tennis Classic Achievement Award

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.83)

YWCA GLA Phenomenal Woman of the Year Award

WTA Fan Favorite Doubles Team of the Year (with Serena Williams)

Forbes 30 Utterly Inspiring Role Models

Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (No.60)

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.2)

2011

Forbes The Celebrity 100 (No.86)

TIME Magazine 30 Legends of Women's Tennis

Forbes Most Powerful Black Women In The U.S. (No.10)

Harris Poll Top 10 Favorite Female Sports Star (No.2)

2012

World TeamTennis Finals Most Valuable Player

WTA Player Service Award

WTA Fan Favorite Doubles Team of the Year (with Serena Williams)

Records

Championship		Years		Recordaccomplished		Player tied
1999 French Open – 2012 Wimbledon		1999–2012		First 13 Grand Slam doubles finals won (with Serena Williams)		Stands alone
French Open		2010		Fastest serve by a woman (207 km/h/128.6 mph)		Stands alone
2002 French Open – 2003 Australian Open		2002–2003		Four consecutive runner-up finishes		Chris Evert
2002 French Open – 2003 Australian Open		2002–2003		Four consecutive runner-up finishes to the same player (Serena Williams)		Stands alone
Wimbledon		2005		Longest women's singles final		Lindsay Davenport
Wimbledon		2007		Lowest-ranked champion (31st)		Stands alone
Wimbledon		2007		Lowest-seeded champion (23rd)		Stands alone
Wimbledon		2008		Fastest serve by a woman (129 mph)		Stands alone
US Open		2007		Fastest serve by a woman (129 mph)		Stands alone
Summer Olympics		2000–2012		4 Gold Medals		Serena Williams
Summer Olympics		2000–2012		3 Doubles Gold Medals (with Serena Williams)		Stands alone
Miami Masters		1998–2002		22 consecutive singles matches won at this tournament		Steffi Graf

In 1997, Williams became the first woman since Pam Shriver in 1978 to reach the singles final of the US Open on her first attempt.

In 1997, Williams became the first unseeded singles finalist at the US Open.

In 1997, the combined ages of Williams at age 17 and Martina Hingis at age 16 in the US Open final were the lowest in the open era history of that tournament.

At 1999 IGA SuperThrift Classic in Oklahoma City marking the first time in tennis history that sisters won titles in the same week (Serena won the Open Gaz de France in Paris).

At the 1999 Lipton International Players Championships in Key Biscayne became the first pair of sisters in the open era to meet in a tournament final (with Serena Williams).

In 2000, Williams became the second African-American to win Wimbledon during the open era.

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. Serena Williams has since joined these 2 women in completing this feat when she won gold in the Singles and Doubles at 2012 London Olympics.

By winning the 2001 Australian Open doubles championship, Venus and Serena Williams became the fifth pair to complete a Career Doubles Grand Slam and the only pair to win a Career Doubles Golden Slam.

The 2001 US Open marked the first time in the open era, and only the second time in 117 years, that sisters met in a Grand Slam singles final (with Serena Williams).

In 2001, she became the third woman in the open era, after Navratilova and Graf, to win both Wimbledon and the US Open in consecutive years.

In February 2002, she became the first African-American woman to become World No. 1 since the computer rankings began in 1975.

In 2002 became the first ever siblings to rank Top 2 at same time with sister Serena.

At Wimbledon in 2003, she reached her fourth consecutive Wimbledon final, which since the abolishment of the challenge round system is tied with Helen Wills Moody for fourth behind Navratilova's nine, King's five, and Evert's five.

Williams and Hingis hold the open era record for consecutive losses in Grand Slam singles finals (five).

One of four women, the others being Serena Williams, Navratilova and Graf, to win the Wimbledon singles title at least five times during the open era.

At Wimbledon in 2009, Williams defeated World No. 1 Dinara Safina in the semifinals 6–1, 6–0, which was the most one-sided women's semifinal at Wimbledon since 1969, when King defeated Rosemary Casals by the same score.