Venus Williams Profile

The oldest of the Williams’ sisters has won the Olympic gold medal in women's tennis and 14 Grand Slam titles, including six singles (four at Wimbledon and two at the U.S. Open), six women's doubles, and two mixed doubles titles.

A former World No. 1, and the 2007 Wimbledon singles champion, Venus was the top ranked American woman at No. 8 (as of February 26, 2008).

She is the older sister of fellow former World No. 1 tennis player Serena Williams, Venus currently holds the record for the fastest serve ever recorded in a professional WTA tour main draw match.

In 1997 she had her breakthrough season highlighted by sensational run to US Open final where she lost lo Swiss player Martina Hingis.

Her Grand Slam debut was at the 1997 Roland Garros, where she lost in the second round. In Wimbledon she lost in the first round but bounced back at the U.S. Open to become, at No.66, the lowest-ranked woman to reach a major final since 1979 and the first woman since Maria Shriver in 1978 to reach the U.S. Open final on her debut. Venus also became the first unseeded female U.S. Open finalist since 1958.

In 2000 she finally won her first Grand Slam event when she defeated fellow American Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon after missing the first four months of season with tendonitis in both wrists.

She went on a 35-match winning streak winning Wimbledon (became the second African-American woman to win the title), Stanford, San Diego, New Haven, the 2000 U.S. Open and the gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics women’s tennis singles event.

In 2001 she repeated the feat of winning Wimbledon and the U.S Open once again, this time against Belgian Justin Henin and younger sister Serena Williams respectively to become the third woman in Open Era to win Wimbledon and US Open in back-to-back years (after Navratilova and Graf, who each achieved the feat twice).

Won Wimbledon twice more (in 2005 and 2007) defeating Lindsay Davenport and French player Marion Bartoli, respectively.

During her career she has lost a total of five Grand Slam singles finals to her younger sister: the 2002 French Open, the 2002 and 2003 Wimbledon Championships, the 2002 U.S. Open and the 2003 Australian Open.

Birthday: June 17, 1980 (1981-09-26)
Birthplace: Lynwood, California, USA
Residence: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
Pro since: 1994