Venus Williams Biography & Images

Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked World No. 6 in singles and World No. 20 in doubles. She is considered to be one of the greatest women's tennis players of all time, 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 African American woman to achieve the feat during the open era.
Williams is the reigning champion in women's doubles at the French Open. Her 21 Grand Slam titles ties her for twelfth on the all time list and is more than any other active female player except for her younger sister Serena Williams: seven in singles, twelve in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. Her seven Grand Slam singles titles ties her with four other women for twelfth on the all-time list. Her five Wimbledon singles titles ties her with two other women for eighth on the all-time list. She is one of only three women in the open era to have won five or more Wimbledon singles titles. From the 2000 Wimbledon Championships through 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 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, 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 has played her sister Serena in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of these matches. They have met in eight Grand Slam singles finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they met in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals. The pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles together.

Williams was born in Lynwood, California to Richard Williams and Kathrine Williams. She is of African American heritage and is the second youngest of Oracene's five daughters: half-sisters Yetunde (died September 14, 2003), Lyndrea and Isha Price, and younger sister and former World No. 1 tennis player Serena Williams.

Williams's family moved from Compton, California to West Palm Beach when she was ten so that she could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who would provide additional coaching. Macci spotted the exceptional talents of the sisters. 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 white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments.[8] At that time, Williams had a 63–0 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and was ranked No. 1 among 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.
Williams is one of the most powerful and better baseliners on tour,[citation needed] 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. 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.
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. This was Williams' first ever 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 Williams to pull out from the Fed Cup quarterfinal against Belgium. Further, she also pulled out from Dubai Tennis Championships and the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, where she was the two-time defending champion in both tournaments. Her next scheduled events are the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
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 37. Serena has 13 slams and Venus has 7.
On December 13, 2007, Williams received her associate degree in Fashion Design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale with Cum Laude honors and a 3.5 GPA.

Williams's longtime boyfriend, pro golfer Hank Kuehne, has been a visible presence since Wimbledon 2007, holding her hand during long rain delays and clapping support from the players' box along with her parents and younger sister Serena. "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."

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."
Williams said her family's faith as Jehovah's Witnesses has helped her tremendously.