Venus Ebony Starr Williams is an American tennis star with 22 Grand Slam titles (7 Singles, 13 Doubles, 2 Mixed Doubles) and 4 Olympic Gold Medals and is known as one of the best players of her generation. She is the elder sister of Serena Williams who holds 33 Grand Slam titles to her name. Williams was born on June 17, 1980 to Richard Williams and Oracene Price in Lynwood, California. Richard Williams was a farmer in Louisiana who was an avid tennis fan and wanted to see his daughters succeed as professional tennis players. He bought instructional tapes and books to learn tennis, so him and his wife could teach their daughters how to play. The sisters first started training at the run down tennis courts near their house and then attended Rick Macci’s tennis academy. Later, Richard took over the girls’ coaching entirely.
Venus started competing in junior tennis tournaments where she held a 63-0 win-lose record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour. She was ranked the No. 1 player in the under 12 category but Richard pulled her out of competitions so she could focus on her studies and not feel the pressure of having to win. Venus turned pro on October 31, 1994, at the age of fourteen due to the then relaxed rules of the WTA allowing younger girls to turn pro. However, she participated in limited competitions and focused on her school work side by side. As she steadily started participating in more tournaments, her ranking rose to the top 100 in the world for the first time in April 1997, and she finished the year ranked World No. 22. The sisters first played each other professionally in the second round of the Australian Open in 1998; Venus won the encounter but lost in the quarterfinals to then World No. 3 Lindsay Davenport. A few weeks later, she won the first singles title of her career – the IGA Tennis Classic in Oklahoma City in which she defeated Davenport in the semifinal and Joannette Kruger in the final.
Venus’s first singles Grand Slam victory came in Wimbledon 2000, where she defeated
