VENUS WILLIAMS
Former World No.1 and two-time defending Wimbledon champion Venus Williams is on the way to capture her third straight Wimbledon title, because she was reached in the semi final of the Wimbledon 2009. She defeated Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska very easily in the quarterfinal with the score 6-1, 6-2. The third-seeded Williams took only 68 minutes to defeat 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Now she is looking for her sixth Wimbledon title and is trying to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win three consecutive Wimbledon title. Venus will face the world number one Dinara Safina in the semi final of the Wimbledon. It is the wonderful news is that her sister Serena was also reached in the semi final. If these two sisters are reached in the final, we can see their second consecutive final on Wimbledon on Saturday.
BIOGRAPHY
Venus Williams was born on 17th June, 1980 in Lynwood, California, U.S. She started playing tennis at the age of four on her neighborhood courts with her father Richard. She turned into professional in 1994 at the age of 14 by participating in ‘Bank of the West Classic’ tournament in Oakland. In 1995, she played three tournaments, and she reached in the quarter final of the tournament in Oakland by defeating World No. 18 Amy Frazier in the second round and this was her first win over a top 20 ranked player. Venus began to play regularly on the tour in 1997, and she reached the quarterfinals of three ‘Tier I’ events. In her debut ‘US Open’, she was defeated in the final by Martina Hingis. In 1998, she won ‘Australian Open’ and the ‘French Open’ mixed doubles with her partner American player Justin Gimelstob. She was listed as 5th seed on that year, and she was also reached in single quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam events of that year. She won the first three WTA tour singles titles of her career in Oklahoma City and Key Biscayne, Florida and at the Grand Slam Cup. She won her first two doubles titles with her sister Serena in Oklahoma City and Zurich and became only the third pair of sisters to win a WTA tour doubles title. In 2000, she won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon, defeating World No. 1 Martina Hingis, sister Serena , and defending champion Lindsay Davenport in the final. She also gained that years US Open, by defeating the World No. 1 Hingis in the semifinals and World No. 2 Davenport in the final. Furthermore, in Sydney Olympics, she won the gold medal in single’s tennis by defeating Elena Dementieva in the final and gained gold medal in doubles with her sister Serena. So she became only the second player to win the women’s singles and doubles titles at the same Olympic games. In 2001, she won US Open and Wimbledon and she became the sixth woman in history to win the single’s titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open in consecutive years. In 2002, she gained seven single’s titles, and she was raised as World No. 1 position. So she became the first African-American player to gain that position since 1975. The year 2003 was not good for her. She lost to her sister Serena in Australian Open final and also lost in Wimbledon final to her sister. Also her older sister Yetunde Price was murdered in the Compton, California area of that year. In 2004, she cannot be able to win any major tournament. The 2005 Wimbledon final was the longest Wimbledon final in history in which Venus defeated top seeded Davenport with the score 6–4, 6–7(4), 5–4 (40–30). She was the lowest-ranked and lowest-seeded champion in that tournament history. In 2009 Australian Open, she was seeded fourth and in that tournament, she was lost to unseeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the second round. However, she and her sister Serena won the doubles title on 2009 Australian open. In 2009 French Open, she was seeded third and in that tournament fell in the 3rd round to 29th seeded Agnes Szavay. Now in 2009 Wimbledon, she reached in the semi final by defeating Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska very easily in the quarterfinal with the score 6-1, 6-2. She had a boy friend named Hank Kuehne who has been a visible presence since Wimbledon 2007. Moreover, she is the chief executive officer of her interior design firm “V Starr Interiors” located in Jupiter, Florida and this company designed the set of the “Tavis Smiley Show” on PBS, the Olympic athletes’ apartments to host the 2012 Olympic Games, and residences and businesses in the Palm Beach, Florida area. Venus is considered as one of the most powerful base liners in tennis, and she had the most powerful and feared serve on the women’s tennis. She holds the record for the fastest serve struck by a woman in a main draw event and also holds the record for fastest serve in all four Grand Slam tournaments. In addition, she had a higher average serving speed than Roger Federer and Rafel Nadal. After all she is wonderful tennis player in the world who won 56 titles, which included 17 Grand Slam titles - seven in singles, eight in women’s doubles, and two in mixed doubles.
AWARDS
Extra ordinary tennis player Venu Williams gained many awards in her tennis carrier. She gained “Sports Image Foundation Award” for conducting tennis clinics in low-income areas in 1995, “WTA Doubles Team of the Year Award “with Serena Williams, “Teen Awards Achievement Award” and “Women’s Sports Foundation’s Athlete of the Year Award” in 2000, “ESPY Award for Best Female Tennis Player” in 2001, ” ESPY Award Best Female Athlete” and “ESPY Award Best Female Tennis Player” in 2002, “34th NAACP Image Awards’ President’s Award” in 2003, “Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year Award” in 2005, “ESPY Award Best Female Tennis Player”, “BET’s Best Female Athlete of the Year” and “Harris Poll Most Favorite Female Sports Star” in 2006, “Whirlpool 6th Sense Player of the Year Award” in 2008. In 2001, she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by the Ladies Home Journal and in June 2009, Venus was named 77th in The Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities compiled by Forbes Magazine.
