venus williams wiki : Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980)is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 16 in the WTA singles rankings.She is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis and, along with younger sister Serena Williams, is credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour.
Williams has been ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on three occasions, for a total of 11 weeks. She first reached the No. 1 ranking on February 25, 2002, the first African American woman to do so in the Open Era, and the second all time since Althea Gibson. Williams' seven Grand Slam singles titles are tied for 12th on the all-time list, and 8th on the Open Era list, more than any other active female player except Serena. She has reached 16 Grand Slam finals, most recently at Wimbledon in 2017. She has also won 14 Grand Slam Women's doubles titles, all with Serena; the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals. Williams also has two Mixed Doubles titles. Her five Wimbledon singles titles tie her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list, but gives her sole possession of No. 4 on the Open Era List, trailing only the nine titles of Martina Navratilova and the seven of Serena and Steffi Graf. From the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments in that span. At the 2018 Wimbledon Championships, Williams extended her record as the all-time leader, male or female, in Grand Slams played, with 79. With her run to the 2017 Wimbledon singles final, she broke the record for longest time between first and most recent grand slam singles finals appearances.
Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in women's doubles, along with a silver medal in mixed doubles, pulling even with Kathleen McKane Godfree for the most Olympic medals won by a male or female tennis player. She is the only tennis player to have won a medal at four Olympic Games. 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 49 singles titles, Williams trails only Serena among 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 since January 1, 2000. She is also one of only three active WTA players to have made the finals of all four Grand Slams, along with Serena and Maria Sharapova.
In 2003, at age 31, Yetunde Price, Venus and Serena Williams's older half-sister, 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."
On December 13, 2007, Williams received her associate degree in fashion design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
Williams's longtime boyfriend, pro golfer Hank Kuehne, was a visible presence from the time of Wimbledon 2007 until 2010, when Kuehne dated and (in May 2011) married his current wife, Andy. Williams is now dating millionaire heir Nicholas Hammond.
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 adopted a vegan diet, as well as reducing her intake of calories and sugars, which helped get her back to match winning fitness.
In 2015, Williams received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Indiana University East. Starting in 2011, she completed the degree through a reciprocal agreement between the university and the Women's Tennis Association which allows athletes to play tennis professionally while studying online. Her ultimate goal is to get an MBA in the near future.
Williams considers herself to be one of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Venus vs. Serena
Williams has played younger sister Serena in 30 professional matches since 1998. Overall, Venus has won 12 of those matches and Serena has won 18. They have met in 15 Grand Slam tournaments, with Venus winning five matches to Serena's ten. They have met in nine Grand Slam tournament finals, with Venus winning twice. Of the six occasions where they met in an earlier round, the victor has gone on to win the championship four times (Venus once, in the 2000 Wimbledon Championships).
Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they played each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, which was the first time in the open era that the same two players had contested four consecutive major finals.
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