Venus Williams Height, Age, Fiancé, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Venus Williams

• Venus Williams was born in Lynwood, California.

• When Venus was eleven, her family moved from Compton, California, to West Palm Beach, Florida, so that she and her sister, Serena Williams, could attend the tennis academy of Rick Macci, who recognised their potential and provided them with additional coaching.
  

  Venus Williams (left) with her sister Serena Williams (right) at her young age

• In an interview, Venus Williams mentioned that her father, Richard, stopped sending Venus and Serena to national junior tennis tournaments because he wanted them to focus on their schoolwork.

• Both Williams sisters also faced racism from the parents of other players at Rick Macci’s academy. At that time, the Williams sisters had a 63–0 record on the United States Tennis Association junior tour and were ranked No. 1 among under-12 players in Southern California.

• At the age of 14, Venus Williams turned professional on October 31, 1994 and won her very first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour match against Shaun Stafford at the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland.
  

  Venus Williams, while playing her Pro debut in the Women’s Tennis Association in 1994

• In 1995, Venus Williams’s father, Richard, pulled her and her sister, Serena Williams, out of Macci’s academy and took over all their coaching himself.
  

  Venus Williams with her father

• When Williams was 14, she signed an endorsement deal with Reebok and wore the company’s apparel and shoes at the junior tennis tournaments. She used a Wilson Hammer 6.2 Stretch racket in the tournament.

• In 1997, Venus made her debut at both the French Open and the US Open. However, she lost in the finals of both tournaments. After the US Open tournament, her father, Richard Williams, claimed that her defeat at the US Open was motivated by racial bias.

• In 1998, Venus made her Australian Open debut, in which she defeated her younger sister Serena Williams in the second round. Both the Williams sisters were playing against each other first time.

• On March 30, 1998, her world ranking broke into the top 10 for the first time, at world No. 10. In the same year, on July 27, 1998, her ranking rose to world No. 5.

• In 1998, Venus won her first two women’s doubles titles, in Oklahoma City and Zürich, both achieved with her sister. They became only the third pair of sisters to win a WTA tour doubles title.

• In 1999, at the French Open, she again teamed up with her sister Serena and won her first Grand Slam title in women’s doubles. She also finished the year 1999 ranked No. 3.

• In 2000, Venus Williams missed the first five months of the year with tendinitis in both wrists. In the same year, she won 35 consecutive singles matches and six tournaments, the longest winning streak for a female player since 1997 at that time.

• In the same year, she won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon, then won the US Open and a gold medal in singles and doubles at the Sydney Olympics the same year.
  

  Venus Williams (right) with her sister Serena Williams (left) after winning their first Grand Slam title in women’s doubles at Wimbledon

• At the Australian Open in 2001, she teamed with her sister to win the doubles title at the event, where she won a Career Golden Slam in women’s doubles for the pair.

• In 2001, Serena Williams won her second consecutive US Open singles title, defeating her sister in the finals. With this victory, she became only the sixth woman in history to win the singles titles at both Wimbledon and the US Open in consecutive years.

• Venus achieved the number one ranking for the first time in February 2002, and throughout her career, she held the top-ranking position for a total of 11 weeks.

• Williams was named among the 30 most powerful women in America in 2001 by the Ladies Home Journal.

• In June 2002, Serena defeated Venus in the finals of the French Open, the U.S. Open, and Wimbledon. Williams finished the year ranked No. 2, having won seven titles.

• In 2002, Venus started her own interior design company, V Starr Interiors, in Florida.

• In 2003, she faced her sister at the Australian Open finals. However, she lost to her sister Serena. In the same year, both sisters teamed to win the women’s doubles title at the event, and won their sixth Grand Slam title in women’s doubles.

• At the 2003 Wimbledon Open, she again lost to her sister in the finals. Venus finished 2003 at the rank no. 11, and it was the first time in nearly six years that she had dropped out of the top 10.

• In 2005, Venus won her third Wimbledon singles title after saving a championship point against Lindsay Davenport in the longest women’s final in Wimbledon history (at that time). Her ranking was also moved to No. 10. It was the first year since 2001 that she had finished a year ranked higher than her sister Serena Williams.

• Tennis Magazine ranked Williams as the 25th-best player of the past 40 years in 2005.

• In 2006, due to multiple injuries, she struggled in her performances and dropped her ranking to 46, marking her lowest finish since she started playing full-time on the WTA Tour in 1997. This was also the second consecutive year that she finished with a higher ranking than her sister Serena, who ended the year at No. 95.

• In 2007, Venus Williams won her fourth Wimbledon singles title. After this title, she became only the fourth woman in the open era to win Wimbledon at least four times.

• She became the lowest-ranked Wimbledon champion in history, breaking her own record set in 2005. As a result of this victory, Williams returned to the top 20.

• Williams teamed with retailer Steve & Barry’s to launch her fashion line, EleVen, in 2007.

• In 2008, Venus Williams defeated her sister Serena to secure her fifth career Wimbledon title, making her the fifth player in women’s history to achieve this number of singles championships at Wimbledon. That same year, the Williams sisters won their second Olympic gold medal in doubles at the Beijing Olympics. With these victories, Venus established herself as one of the most decorated tennis players in Olympic history.

• In 2009, Venus and Serena won their eighth Grand Slam doubles title together. That same year, the sisters faced each other again in the Wimbledon finals, but this time, Serena Williams emerged as the champion.

• In August 2009, Venus and her sister Serena became minority owners of the Miami Dolphins, a professional American football team. This made the sisters the first African-American women to obtain ownership in a National Football League franchise.

• In June 2010, Venus also co-authored a book titled Come to Win: On How Sports Can Help You Top Your Profession.

• In 2010, Venus was ranked No. 5 in singles and No. 11 in doubles along with her sister.

• In 2011, she was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that causes dryness in the eyes and mouth, as well as extreme fatigue and chronic pain. At that time, in an interview, she mentioned that she was “too sick to continue to play.” Despite this, she focused on her recovery. She switched to a mostly raw vegan diet to help manage her condition.

• This was the first time in her career that she did not reach the quarterfinals or better in any Grand Slam tournament during a season. As a result, her ranking dropped to 102.

• She began her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Indiana University East in 2011 through a reciprocal agreement between the university and the Women’s Tennis Association that allows athletes to play tennis professionally while studying online.

• In the 2012 London Olympics, Venus and Serena won their third gold medal in doubles after defeating the Czech pair in straight sets. With this win, the Williams sisters became the tennis players with the most Olympic gold medals.

• During the 2012 New York fashion week, Venus launched her brand EleVen. It was modelled by athletes rather than models, as Williams chose to feature the type of people for whom the line was designed. She also wears outfits from her fashion line on the tennis court.

• In 2013, at the WTA Tour Championships, she reached the semifinals, where she lost to her sister Serena in two sets. This match was their first meeting since the 2009 WTA Tour Championships. In the same year, due to a back injury, she pulled out of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. It was the first time she missed Wimbledon in her career.

• In 2014, Venus joined the Bangalore Raptors team for the first edition of the Champions Tennis League in India.

• In 2015, Venus Williams won the first WTA Elite Trophy, marking her third WTA title of the season and the 48th title of her career. She defeated Karolína Plíšková in the final. This victory allowed her to return to the top ten for the first time since 2011, and she finished the year ranked No. 7 in the WTA rankings. Additionally, Williams was recognised as the 10th most popular player of the year and received the WTA Comeback Player of the Year award.

• At the 2016 Taiwan Open Championship, Venus won her 49th career title.

• In 2016, Venus returned to Indian Wells for the first time in 15 years after boycotting the tournament in 2001, but lost in the second round.

• At the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, Williams lost in singles and doubles events, marking her worst exits of her Olympic career.

• In 2017, she reached a Grand Slam singles final at the Australian Open after the 1997 US Open.

• However where she lost to Serena. Later that year, Venus reached the finals at Wimbledon but was defeated.

• In 2018, Williams competed in the Fed Cup quarterfinals against the Dutch team. She won both her singles matches in straight sets against Arantxa Rus and Richèl Hogenkamp to send the United States into the semifinals. She also played her 1000th career match and earned her 20th Fed Cup singles win.

• At the end of the 2018 season, she also parted ways with her long-time coach, David Witt.

• In 2021, Williams struggled with her health and suffered an ankle injury in the Australian Open. In the same year, she dropped out of the top 100 ranking.

• Venus and Serena were executive producers of the Oscar-winning film “King Richard (2021)”, which tells the story of how their father coached them to become champions.

• In 2023, Venus suffered a painful knee injury during her first-round match at Wimbledon and lost the match. Later that year, she had to withdraw from the U.S. Open after tearing her hamstring.

• She returned to compete at the Miami Open in March 2024 but lost in the first round. A few months later, she underwent surgery to remove uterine fibroids, which she had lived with for nearly 30 years.

• In September 2024, she launched her second book titled Strive: 8 Steps to Find Your Awesome, in which she rooted deeply in her personal experiences dealing with illness, training, competition, and balance.
  

  Venus Williams’s second book cover

• After a break of 16 months from competition, Venus made a successful comeback in July 2025 by defeating 23-year-old Peyton Stearns at the D.C. Open, becoming the tour’s second-oldest woman to win a singles match and earning her first singles victory since 2023.

• On 22 July 2025, after a victory at the D.C. Open, Williams announced that she was engaged to actor Andrea Preti.