171 Venus Williams Facts For The Tennis Fan In You

Venus Williams is one of the most well-known female tennis players of the modern era with four Olympic gold medals to her name.

Did you know Venus Williams has played an astonishing 16 Grand Slam tournament finals in her long career? If you are an avid tennis fan then these facts about Venus William are for you!

American professional tennis player Venus Ebony Starr Williams was born on June 17, 1980. Venus Williams has held the title of being No. 1 in both doubles and singles and has had a very successful career which earned her global fame.

Venus Williams is definitely on tennis’ all-time greats list. Starting a powerful era of women’s professional tennis has been accredited to her and her younger sister Serena Williams. Here we will learn some interesting facts relating to Venus Williams’ accomplishments and professional tennis career.

When you take the name of Venus Williams, you can not forget Serena Williams, who is a legend in her own right. Both the sisters can be credited with revolutionizing the way women's tennis has been played and turning it into a power game.

Venus, being the elder sister, started her career early as compared to Serena but after Serena made her debut, both the sisters set the court on fire.

Be it singles or doubles, Olympics or Grand Slam Titles, Venus and Serena dominated the circuit for quite a long time. During this period, both the female stars also faced each other several times with mixed results.

The Williams sisters created a lot of records in the doubles circuit and their performance in the singles tournaments was also quite fascinating. Both the sisters faced each other several times in Grand Slam matches.

One of the most interesting years for sibling rivalry was in the year 2008 when the Beijing Olympics were conducted. Both the Williams sisters bagged their second Olympic gold medal in the female doubles category.

The same year, both the Williams sisters faced each other in the Wimbledon final where Venus defeated Serena to win her fifth Wimbledon title.

This win placed her as the fifth all-time women’s Wimbledon singles champion. But the next year, Serena and Venus Williams again faced off in the finals of the Wimbledon where Serena prevailed over her elder sister.

Continue reading if you are curious about an extremely well-known African American woman tennis player. After you are done reading about her tennis career and performance in Grand Slam tournaments as well as her Olympic gold medals, also check Michelle Obama facts and facts about Rosa Parks.

Fun Facts About Venus Williams

Oracene Price gave birth to Venus Williams in the city of Lynwood in California. Venus Williams showed potential in the game of tennis from the very young age of seven. This potential was spotted by Tony Chesta who was a professional tennis player at the time and played locally.

When Venus was 10, her family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida from California, to further their daughters' careers. This step was taken so both the sisters could attend an acclaimed tennis academy owned by Rick Macci. Rick Macci also saw the potential of both the Williams sisters and also provided them with additional coaching.

Their coach and their father did not always see eye to eye but the coach respected the fact that he treated Venus and Serena like kids and allowed them to enjoy their childhood.

When Williams was 11 years old, her father wanted her to focus on studies as well, so he did not allow them to continue competing in the national junior tennis tournaments.

Her father did this also because it is alleged that he had heard parents belittle the William Sisters on the basis of their race.

Venus Williams at this time was No. 1 in Southern California.

Their father Richard Williams pulled the William Sisters out of Rick’s academy and continued their coaching at home. In an unfortunate incident in 2003, Yetunde Price, who was Venus and Serena’s half-sister was killed in a shooting incident near the tennis court on which the William sisters used to practice.

This left the Williams family devastated and shocked beyond belief.

Venus William while focusing on her professional career has given education significant importance as well. In December of 2007 Venus Williams successfully completed her fashion design degree from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

In the year 2011, following her Sjögren's syndrome diagnosis, Williams wasn’t able to participate in the US Open. To cope with this diagnosis she had to go vegan and cut her sugar and calorie intake to be fully fit.

Venus Williams also successfully completed her Business Administration degree from Indiana University. Williams started her studies in the year of 2011 after the Women's Tennis Association agreed to it.

The association encourages athletes to study online mode while playing tennis professionally. In the near future, Venus expressed her desire to pursue a degree in MBA.

Facts About Venus Williams' Accomplishments

Before 2007, at Wimbledon, the pay of the male tennis players was more than that of the female tennis players.

Venus fought against this archaic practice in the year 2005 that had been decades old. This practice was one of many other examples of pay parity that exists between men and women. Venus Williams found it unacceptable and raised her voice on this matter.

To get her concerns addressed she had a meeting with Larry Scott, who was the CEO of WTA at that point in time. She felt that this practice devalued the efforts and hard work women have continued to put into becoming tennis players. Finally, in the year 2007, All England Club changed its policy of distributing prize money.

Facts About Venus Williams' Professional Career

On October 31, 1994, when Venus was 14 years old she played her first professional match. The round Venus played in the tournament was against Shaun Stafford who was the former NCAA champion. Venus Williams won her first professional match.

In 1997, William took part in about 15 tours that included five tournaments that fell under the tier one category. In the year 1998, Venus Williams played her first WTA singles title and entered the top 10. During her debut Australian open she defeated her younger sister Serena Williams which was their first professional meeting.

Davenport defeated Venus in the quarterfinals. Justin Gimelstob was Venus Williams’ partner when she won the Australian Open and French Open’s doubles title. Serena Williams on the other hand won the remaining titles for the Grand Slam mixed doubles that year and this marked the 'Williams Family Mixed Doubles Grand Slam'.

For the first time, Venus Williams won the Women’s doubles titles and both of them came when she teamed up with her younger sister, Serena Williams. By doing this, they became the third pair of sisters who achieved this feat.

The Williams sisters dominated the year 2000, 2001, and 2002. After recovering from her wrist injury Venus Williams won her first Grand Slam singles title against Martina Hingis, Serena Williams, and Lindsay Davenport. Venus also championed the US open for two consecutive years.

She won her fourth grand slam singles title by beating her sister Serena Williams. It was the first time two sisters had competed against each other in a grand slam tournament’s final.

In 2002 Venus ranked No. 1 and also played four grand slam finals consecutively. From the year 2003-2006, her career was riddled with injuries and losses.

In 2005 however, she won her third Wimbledon title by defeating Davenport and again entered the top ten list. In 2006 she suffered from a wrist injury and there was a drop in her rankings as well. In the year 2007 Williams won her fourth Wimbledon title and returned to the position of No.

2. This year also marked her return to her form.

In the year 2008, Venus Williams won her fifth Wimbledon title and also won first of her many Olympic gold medals along with her sister, Serena Williams. In 2008 she also won the Zurich open that marked the second title of the year.

In 2009 she was a runner-up at Wimbledon and won her career’s fourth women’s doubles grand slam with her sister Serena Williams.

She ended up in the top five for the first time since 2002.

After her Sjögren's Syndrome diagnosis in 2011, she came back and made history with her sister in the 2012 London Olympics by winning the most number of Olympics gold medals in tennis among both male and female players. In 2013 she suffered a back injury.

She ended her title drought by winning the Dubai tennis championships by defeating the top 40 tennis players and won a WTA title at 33 years old, which made her the seventh oldest woman to claim that title.

In 2015 she improved her game at the Grand Slam tournament and made a re-entry in the top 10 list. In 2016 she played a Wimbledon final and won a silver Olympic medal.

This made her the tennis player who holds the most Olympic medals. In 2017 she played her 100th Wimbledon match, also made a return to the top five. From the year 2018 to the present she has been struggling with her form.

Her rankings have also dipped and are at an all-time low. In 2021 Venus Williams made a historic record by making her 90th grand slam tournament appearance.

Facts About Williams Sisters

The Williams sisters Serena and Venus had faced each other 25 times. Serena won three more matches than Venus and the score stands at 14-11. They played against each other for the first time in 1998 and lastly, they played together at the Rogers Cup held in 2014. Unfortunately, and much to people's surprise, these matches are not dramatic.

Both the sisters respect each other, their celebrations are not over the top. However, the matches have been a little more intense in comparison to when they started. In the Grand Slam matches, Venus has won five matches against the 12 matches played.

Serena Williams also leads in the Grand Slam final matches. She has won six out of the eight matches played. Venus Williams once won the Wimbledon and once the U.S. Open.

At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Williams captured the gold medal in the singles competition and claimed a gold medal with her sister in the doubles event.

Both Serena and Venus Williams have been ranked No. 1, in both women’s doubles and singles by the Women’s Tennis Association.

In the year 2002, after the French Open was held the Williams sisters held the first and the second position which made the event commendable as this was the first time the William Sisters had been able to bag the top singles positions in the world.

Venus was first and Serena was second.

This event recurred again in June 2010, about eight years after this feat was achieved before when the first two singles positions were held again by the William sisters but this time it was Serena who held the first place and Venus held the second place.

At this time Venus Williams had recently turned 30 and Serena was about to turn 29.

Venus has a total of 73 WTA titles to her names which includes 22 doubles titles as well as two mixed doubles titles. The tally of 73 WTA titles places her second in the list of most WTA wins by a female player after her sister, Serena Williams.

Moreover, she enjoyed an incredible winning streak that lasted 35 matches starting from the 2000 Wimbledon to the 2000 Generali Ladies Linz tournament.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for 171 Venus Williams facts for the tennis fan in you, then why not take a look at the accomplishments of Rosa Parks or Barack Obama facts?