'''Venus Ebone Starr Williams''' (born June 17, 1980) is a former World No. 1 tennis champion, born in Lynwood, California. She is the daughter of Richard and Oracene Williams and the older sister of another tennis champion, Serena Williams.
Tennis career
Venus turned professional on October 31, 1994; however she did not play regularly on the tour until 1997. In 1997, while playing the U.S. Open for the first time, Venus reached the final where she lost 6-0, 6-4 to Martina Hingis. Over the next several years, Venus went on to win many important championships, including two gold medals at the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000, the 1999 French Open doubles (with sister Serena as her partner), and five other doubles and two mixed doubles grand slams. In 2000, she won the Wimbledon championship and the U.S. Open in singles and successfully defended both grand slam titles in 2001. In 2002 and 2003, Venus reached five major finals but lost all of them to her sister Serena.
When Venus and Serena won the 1998 French Open doubles title, they became the first pair of sisters to win a doubles title in the 20th century.
In 2003, Williams faced her sister Serena Williams at the 2003 Wimbledon finals despite suffering a severe abdominal injury that required medical attention during the match. Venus eventually lost to her sister Serena, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Venus' older sister, Yetunde Price, was murdered in the Compton, California area on the morning of September 14, 2003. The era of domination by the Williams sisters began to close out after the murder. Following Wimbledon in 2003, both Venus and Serena suffered injuries that kept them out of the last half of the 2003 season.
Upon their return in 2004, the Williams sisters failed to recapture their previous best, including Venus's controversial defeat in a second round loss to Croatian Karolina Sprem at Wimbledon. The referee of the match, Ted Watts, awarded Sprem an unearned point in the deciding tiebreak. Upon the conclusion of the match, he was quickly relieved of his duties.
Venus' 2005 season began similarly patchy, with one Tier III title (Istanbul) and a series of unusual losses. However, media attention and public interest in both of the Williams sisters continued with their fashion and interior design companies as well as their reality TV series.
At the 2005 French Open, Venus lost in the third round to 15-year old Bulgarian Sesil Karatantcheva. Karatantcheva subsequently failed a doping test, resulting in her being suspended from the sport for two years.
The following month, Venus
