Williams, Venus

Impact on the world

Became the first Black player of either gender to reach the world No. 1 ranking since the ATP and WTA rankings began in the 1970s, won seven Grand Slam singles titles and a record-tying five Wimbledon titles, and became the most decorated tennis player in Olympic history with four gold medals and one silver across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles.

Life & background

Born 15 months before her sister Serena and raised alongside her in Compton, California under their parents' intensive coaching, Williams turned professional at 14 and became the first unseeded player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final, at the 1997 U.S. Open. In 2000 and 2001 she won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and on February 25, 2002, she became the first Black man or woman to reach the world No. 1 ranking since the ATP and WTA rankings began. Her later career was affected by injuries and Sjögren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease, but she won her fifth Wimbledon title in 2008. With four Olympic gold medals and one silver, she is the most decorated tennis player, male or female, in Olympic history. In 2005 she became a leading advocate for equal prize money in tennis, helping persuade Wimbledon and the French Open to finally match men's prize money by 2007. Together with her sister, she is credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism in women's professional tennis, helping open the historically white, country-club sport to a more multicultural audience despite facing open racist hostility, including a notorious 2001 incident at Indian Wells that led both sisters to boycott the tournament for over a decade. As a doubles pairing, the sisters remain unbeaten in major doubles finals, having won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals together, and in 2018 they co-founded the Yetunde Price Resource Center in Compton, named for their half-sister who was murdered in 2003, to provide mental health and violence-recovery services to their home community.

Sources

1. Olympics.com; ESPN