Venus

..This profile was edited with MySpace Profile Editor MySpace Profile EditorI'm a professional tennis player. Born June 17, 1980, in Lynwood, California. With my younger sister, Serena, we took the tennis world by storm beginning in the late 1990s. We harnessed our powerful groundstrokes and booming serves to rise in the rankings in both women’s singles and women’s doubles competitions. Coached by our outspoken father, Richard Williams, we have been credited with raising public awareness of our sport and with bringing the women’s tennis game to a whole new level of power and athleticism. Growing up in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, California, we were the two youngest of five daughters of Richard and Oracene (Brandi) Williams. Our father dreamed of raising tennis stars, and we showed the most aptitude for the game—we both began winning tournaments when we were 10 years old. In 1991, our family moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where we trained with Rick Macci, who had worked with such teen stars as Jennifer Capriati, and for a short time with Nick Bolletieri, the famed former coach of Andre Agassi and Monica Seles. Soon, however, our father took over the coaching (and promotional) duties for both of his prodigious daughters, choosing to withdraw them completely from the junior tennis circuit so that they could concentrate on their studies. This controversial decision earned him a mixture of praise and criticism among observers of tennis.After 1994, the World Tennis Association (WTA) did not allow 14-year-olds to compete in all tour events, although “phase-in” clauses allowed some to play in a limited number of events. I turned pro in October 1994, before the new rule went into effect. My first tournament was the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California, where I showed a good deal of promise in a loss to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, then ranked No. 2 in the world. For my first two years on the pro tour, I stayed out of the limelight and kept up with my high school studies, not making my debut at a Grand Slam until the 1997 French Open. At that year’s U.S. Open, I became the first unseeded woman ever to reach the tournament’s final, and the first African-American woman to do so since Althea Gibson won back-to-back championships in 1957 and 1958. Though I lost to Switzerland’s Martina Hingis, the 17-year-old No. 1-ranked player in the world, in the finals, I saw my own ranking shoot up from No. 66 to No. 25 in only one day.I started out the 1998 season well, beating Hingis in a tournament in Sydney, Australia, and reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open (defeating myy younger sister on the way). Though I lost to Lindsay Davenport in the singles draw, I teamed up with Justin Gimelstob to win the mixed doubles championship. I won my first WTA singles title at the IGA Tennis Classic in March and went on to score a big win at the Lipton International, defeating Anna Kournikova of Russia (another of tennis’ highly-touted up-and-comers) and Hingis. The Lipton win propelled me into the top 10. I finished 1998 with a great record in the Grand Slams, reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open and Wimbledon and the semifinals of the U.S. Open.Despite my impressive record and growing confidence, I had yet to achieve the accolade I had dreamed about my whole life: a Grand Slam victory. My younger sister, Serena, whom our father had once claimed would be the better player of the two, reached that goal first, when she won the 1999 U.S. Open.In October, Serena beat me for the first time, in the finals of the Grand Slam Cup in Munich, Germany. Both of us finished the 1999 season ranked in the top five in the world. Still the higher-ranked sister, I finished off the 1999 season ranked No. 3 in the world and was the second-highest paid player in terms of prize money (Serena was the third) with career earnings of nearly $4.6 million.The next year the glory belonged to me, although it didn’t appear that way in the beginning. Both of us got off to a slow start in 2000 due to injuries, and in April my dad announced that I was contemplating retirement. Just a few months later, however, I began a winning streak that took me all the way to Wimbledon, where I grabbed a Grand Slam title of my own, beating both Hingis and Serena (in an emotional semifinal match) before dominating defending champion Davenport in the finals and making some history of my own. Just one day later,Serena and I teamed up to win the Wimbledon doubles title.On September 9, 2000, I met Davenport again in the finals of the U.S. Open, where I won my 26th straight match and became the first woman since Hingis in 1997 to win two Grand Slam titles in one year. Me and Serena also captured the doubles title.In the fall of 2000, both of us represented the United States at the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, alongside Davenport and Monica Seles. Continuing my amazing winning streak, I became the only other woman besides Helen Wills Moody in 1924 to capture gold in both singles and doubles we(serena and I) won our 22nd straight doubles match in the finals in the same Olympiad.In July 2001, I successfully defended my Wimbledon title, beating Davenport in the semifinal and the Belgian player Justine Henin in the finals. I had an even more eventful U.S. Open, beating the resurgent Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals before facing Serena in the finals, the first meeting of sisters in a Grand Slam final since 1884. My maturity served me well in the all-Williams matchup, as I beat Serena in two sets to win my second consecutive Open title.However, 2002 would belong to Serena. Serena defeated me in the finals of the French Open, Wimbeldon, and US Open. The string of victories catapulted my younger sibling to the top of WTA tour rankings, with me dropping to second in the standings.Despite the inevitable rivalry, my sister and I remain close friends. Raised as devout Jehovah’s Witnesses,we both were home-schooled by our mother, and have received our high school diplomas. In 1999, Serena joined me at the Art Institute of Florida, where we studied fashion design.Then I won my favorite grand slam ( wimbledon), in 2005, and 2007