Arthur Ashe Stadium
Location	USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing, Queens, New York
Opened	1997
Owner	USTA
Surface	DecoTurf
Construction cost	$ 254 million
Architect	Rossetti Architects
Capacity	22,547
Tenants
US Open

In July 2008, Arthur Ashe Stadium hosted the first ever professional basketball game played outdoors.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, built in 1997 at the USTA National Tennis Center in New York City, is the world's largest tennis-specific stadium.

Arthur Ashe Stadium, a part of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center located within Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens, is the main tennis stadium of the US Open, the last of each year's four Grand Slam tournaments, and also where the annual Arthur Ashe Kids' Day takes place. The stadium is named after the famous African-American tennis player, Arthur Ashe, who won the inaugural US Open in which professionals could compete in 1968.

Background[link]

Opening in 1997, Arthur Ashe Stadium replaced Louis Armstrong Stadium as the primary venue for the tournament. The Stadium, which cost $254 million to construct, features 22,547 individual seats, 90 luxury suites, five restaurants and a two-level players' lounge—making it, by far, the largest outdoor tennis-only venue in the world. The Stadium, like the other 32 courts in the facility, has a DecoTurf cushioned acrylic surface. Due to its location near Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, all these stadiums share the Mets–Willets Point stop on the New York City Subway's 7 Train.

On July 19, 2008, Arthur Ashe Stadium hosted the first ever regular season professional basketball (men or women) game to be played outdoors when the WNBA Indiana Fever beat the host New York Liberty, 71–55.^[1] The game served as a fundraising event for breast cancer research.

The stadium's lack of a retractable roof for inclement weather has occasionally been a subject of criticism. Although no provision for the addition of a roof was included in the facility's original design, there have been discussions about the possibility of adding one in the future.^[2] Furthermore, the lack of a roof can result in relatively strong and unpredictable winds inside the stadium.^[3]

Arthur Ashe Stadium is equipped with the Hawk-Eye electronic system which allows tennis players to challenge the umpire's decision on calls made throughout championships. In 2005, the color scheme for the courts were changed from green to electric blue inner courts and a light green outer court. All US Open Series events now use this color scheme. The change in court colors was to aid television viewers in tracking the ball since blue contrasts against the yellow tennis balls better.^[4]

See also[link]

• List of tennis stadiums by capacity

References[link]

Notes

Sources

External links[link]

• centre court 1
• centre court 2
• centre court 3
• centre court 4 (US Open 2006)
• centre court 5 (US Open 2006)
• centre court 6 (US Open 2006)

Tennis portal

v t e Sports venues in the New York metropolitan area Active The Bronx Draddy Gymnasium Gaelic Park Rose Hill Gymnasium Van Cortlandt Park Yankee Stadium Brooklyn Athletic, Recreation & Wellness Center Aviator Sports and Recreation MCU Park Generoso Pope Athletic Complex Schwartz Athletic Center Manhattan Icahn Stadium Levien Gymnasium Madison Square Garden Wien Stadium Fort Washington Avenue Armory Queens Aqueduct Racetrack Belson Stadium Carnesecca Arena Citi Field Metropolitan Oval USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (Arthur Ashe Stadium Louis Armstrong Stadium) West Side Tennis Club Staten Island Richmond County Bank Ballpark Spiro Sports Center Staten Island Cricket Club Long Island Belmont Park Bethpage Ballpark Island Garden Mitchel Athletic Complex Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum New Jersey Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium Richard J. Codey Arena FirstEnergy Park Freehold Raceway High Point Solutions Stadium Jersey City Armory Louis Brown Athletic Center Mennen Arena Meadowlands Sports Complex (Izod Center Meadowlands Racetrack MetLife Stadium) Monmouth Park Old Bridge Township Raceway Park Princeton University Stadium Prudential Center Red Bull Arena Rothman Center Sun National Bank Center TD Bank Ballpark Waterfront Park Wall Township Speedway Yanitelli Center Yogi Berra Stadium Yurcak Field Defunct 69th Regiment Armory Bloomingdale Park Boyle's Thirty Acres Bronx Coliseum Capitoline Grounds Coney Island Velodrome Eastern Park Ebbets Field Elysian Fields Dexter Park Downing Stadium Giants Stadium Harrison Park Hilltop Park Hinchliffe Stadium Island Garden (Original) Long Island Arena Madison Square Garden (1879) Madison Square Garden (1890) Madison Square Garden (1925) Madison Square Garden Bowl Metropolitan Park Newark Schools Stadium Newark Velodrome Palmer Stadium Polo Grounds Ridgewood Park Roosevelt Stadium Ruppert Stadium Rutgers Stadium (1938) St. George Cricket Grounds Shea Stadium Singer Bowl Thompson Stadium Union Grounds Washington Park Yankee Stadium (1923) In progress Barclays Center Port Imperial Street Circuit Never built Brooklyn Dodgers proposed domed stadium The Lighthouse Project West Side Stadium Bergen Ballpark

Coordinates: 40°44′59.59″N 73°50′49.32″W / 40.7498861°N 73.8470333°W / 40.7498861; -73.8470333

Arthur Ashe

President Reagan greets Arthur Ashe (left) in 1982
Country	United States
Residence	Richmond, Virginia
Born	July 10, 1943 Richmond, Virginia, USA
Died	February 6, 1993(1993-02-06) (aged 49) New York City, New York, USA
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	160 lb (73 kg; 11 st)
Turned pro	1969
Retired	1980
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$1,584,909 (according to the ATP)
Int. Tennis HOF	1985 (member page)
Singles
Career record	818–260 (at Grand Prix tour, WCT tour, and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	33
Highest ranking	No. 1 (1969)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	W (1970)
French Open	QF (1970, 1971)
Wimbledon	W (1975)
US Open	W (1968)
Doubles
Career record	323–176 (at Grand Prix tour, WCT tour, and Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	18 (14 according to the ATP)
Highest ranking	No. 15 (August 30, 1977)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1977)
French Open	W (1971)
Wimbledon	F (1971)
US Open	F (1968)

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was a former World No. 1 professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States. Ashe, an African American, was the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is also remembered for his efforts to further social causes.

Early life and tennis career[link]

Born in Gum Spring, Virginia, to parents Arthur Ashe Sr. and Mattie Cordell Cunningham Ashe, Arthur and his younger brother, Johnnie, suffered a tragic loss when their mother died suddenly from heart related complications during routine surgery. Arthur Ashe first attended Maggie L. Walker High School, being coached by Ronald Charity, and later coached by Robert Walter Johnson. Tired of having to travel great distances to play Caucasian youths in segregated Richmond, Ashe accepted an offer from a St. Louis tennis official to move there and attend Sumner High School.^[1] Young Ashe was recognized by Sports Illustrated for his playing.^[2]

Ashe was awarded a tennis scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1963. That same year, Ashe became the first black player ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team.

In 1965, Ashe won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles title and contributed to UCLA's winning the team NCAA tennis championship. While at UCLA, Ashe was initiated as a member of the Upsilon chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Ashe was also a member of the UCLA Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant after completing camp at Fort Lewis, Washington in the summer of 1966.^{[citation needed]}

The Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center, on the campus of UCLA

In 1968, Ashe won the United States Amateur Championships against Davis Cup Teammate Bob Lutz, and the inaugural US Open and aided the U.S Davis Cup team to victory. He is the only player to have won both of these amateur and open national championships in the same year.^[3] Concerned that tennis professionals were not receiving winnings commensurate with the sport's growing popularity, Ashe supported formation of the Association of Tennis Professionals. That year would prove even more momentous for Ashe when he was denied a visa by the South African government, thereby keeping him out of the South African Open. Ashe used this denial to publicize South Africa's apartheid policies. In the media, Ashe called for South Africa to be expelled from the professional tennis circuit.

In 1969, Ashe turned professional. In 1970, Ashe won his second Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open.

In 1975, Ashe won Wimbledon, defeating Jimmy Connors in the final. He also won the season ending championship WCT Finals. Arthur played for a few more years, but after being slowed by heart surgery in 1979, he retired in 1980.

Ashe remains the only black man to ever win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open. He is one of only two men of black African ancestry to win a Grand Slam singles title, the other being France's metis Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranked Ashe as one of the 21 best players of all time.^[4]

Grand Slam singles tournament timeline[link]

¹The Australian Open was held twice in 1977, in January and December.
A = did not participate in the tournament
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

Activities after retirement from professional tennis[link]

After his retirement, Ashe took on many new tasks, including writing for Time magazine, commentating for ABC Sports, founding the National Junior Tennis League, and serving as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1983, Ashe underwent a second heart surgery. He was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985. He also founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS.^[5]

In 1988, Ashe published a three-volume book titled A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete,^[6] after working with a team of researchers for nearly six years.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Ashe served in the US Army from 1966–68, reaching the rank of first lieutenant. On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer he had met four months earlier. Andrew Young, the US ambassador to the UN, performed the ceremony at the UN chapel in New York City. Arthur and Jeanne adopted one child together, a daughter, who was born on December 21, 1986. She was named Camera after her mother's profession. Camera was only six years old when her father died.

In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack, an event that surprised the public in view of his high level of fitness as an athlete. His condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease. Ashe underwent a quadruple bypass operation, performed by Dr. John Hutchinson on December 13, 1979.^[8] A few months after the operation, Ashe was on the verge of making his return to professional tennis. However, during a family trip in Cairo, Egypt, he developed chest pain while running. Ashe stopped running and returned to see physician and close friend Douglas Stein, who had accompanied the family on the trip. Stein urged Ashe to return to New York City so he could be close to his cardiologist and surgeon.^[8]

Ashe promoting heart health after his heart attack.

In 1983, Ashe underwent a second round of heart surgery to correct the bypass surgery he received back in 1979. In 1988, Ashe fell ill and discovered he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions he had received during his second heart surgery, which ultimately led to his death. He and his wife kept his illness private until April 8, 1992, when reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his health condition because of his increasingly gaunt physical appearance forced him to make a public announcement that he had the disease.^[9] In the last year of his life, Ashe did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year. He also spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death. Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993.^[10] Ashe is buried in Woodland Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. His wife continues on with civil rights activism, most recently contributing a video to New Yorkers for marriage equality.

Civil rights leader[link]

Ashe, the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam event, was an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration.

He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the South African embassy in Washington, D.C. during an anti-apartheid rally. He was also arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.

Honors[link]

The Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2007 US Open

• In 1979, Arthur Ashe was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. In commenting on his induction, the Hall noted that, ”Arthur Ashe was certainly a hero to people of all ages and races, and his legacy continues to touch the lives of many today. For Arthur Ashe, tennis was a means to an end. Although he had a lucrative tennis career, it was always more than personal glory and individual accolades. He used his status as an elite tennis player to speak out against the moral inequalities that existed both in and out of the tennis world. Ashe sincerely wanted to bring about change in the world. What made him stand out was that he became a world champion along the way.”^[11]
• In 1985, Ashe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• After his death, Arthur Ashe's body lay in state at the governor's mansion in his home state of Virginia. The last time this was allowed was for Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
• The city of Richmond posthumously honored Ashe's life with a statue on Monument Avenue, a place traditionally reserved for statues of key figures of the Confederacy. This decision led to some controversy in a city that was the capital of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.^[12]
• In 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
• The main stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, where the US Open is played, is named Arthur Ashe Stadium in his honor. This is also the home of the annual Arthur Ashe Kids' Day.
• In 2002, Ashe's achievement at Wimbledon in 1975 was voted 95th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
• In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Arthur Ashe on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[13]
• In 2005, the United States Postal Service announced the release of an Arthur Ashe commemorative postal stamp, the first stamp ever to feature the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine.
• Also in 2005, TENNIS Magazine put him in 30th place in their list of the 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS Era.^[14]
• His wife wrote a book, Daddy and Me, a photographic journey told from the perspective of his young daughter. Another book, Arthur Ashe and Me, also gives young readers a chance to learn about his life.
• ESPN's annual sports awards, the ESPY Awards, hands out the Arthur Ashe for Courage Award to a member of the sports world who best exhibits courage in the face of adversity.
• Philadelphia's Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Center and Richmond's Arthur Ashe Athletic Center are named for Ashe.
• The Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center at Ashe's alma mater, UCLA, is named for him. The center opened in 1997.
• He was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Hall of Fame in 1983.^[15]
• He was mentioned in the 30 rock episode Generalissimo in Season 3 when Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) talks about being offered serious roles and losing his audience, and holds up a screenplay while saying, "Do you really want to see me play Arthur Ashe?!?"

Schools[link]

Grand Slam finals[link]

Singles: 7 finals (3 titles, 4 runner-ups)[link]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Runner-up	1966	Australian Championships	Grass	Roy Emerson	4–6, 8–6, 2–6, 3–6
Runner-up	1967	Australian Championships	Grass	Roy Emerson	4–6, 1–6, 4–6
Winner	1968	US Open	Grass	Tom Okker	14–12, 5–7, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3
Winner	1970	Australian Open	Grass	Dick Crealy	6–4, 9–7, 6–2
Runner-up	1971	Australian Open	Grass	Ken Rosewall	1–6, 5–7, 3–6
Runner-up	1972	US Open	Grass	Ilie Năstase	6–3, 3–6, 7–6(5–1), 4–6, 3–6
Winner	1975	Wimbledon	Grass	Jimmy Connors	6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 6–4

Doubles, 5 finals (2 titles, 3 runner-ups)[link]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score in the final
Runner-Up	1968	US Open	Grass	Andrés Gimeno	Bob Lutz Stan Smith	11–9, 6–1, 7–5
Runner-Up	1970	French Open	Clay	Charlie Pasarell	Ilie Năstase Ion Ţiriac	6–2, 6–4, 6–3
Winner	1971	French Open	Clay	Marty Riessen	Tom Gorman Stan Smith	6–8, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4, 11–9
Runner-Up	1971	Wimbledon	Grass	Dennis Ralston	Roy Emerson Rod Laver	4–6, 9–7, 6–8, 6–4, 6–4
Winner	1977 (Jan)	Australian Open	Grass	Tony Roche	Charlie Pasarell Erik Van Dillen	6–4, 6–4

Grand Slam, Grand Prix and WCT Tour titles (33)[link]

Singles[link]

1.	August 1, 1968	U.S. Amateur Championships, Boston MA, USA	Grass	Robert Lutz	4–6, 6–3, 8–10, 6–0, 6–4
2.	August 29, 1968	US Open, New York City, USA	Grass	Tom Okker	14–12, 5–7, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3
3.	January 19, 1970	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Grass	Dick Crealy	6–4, 9–7, 6–2
4.	1970	Berkeley, California
5.	1970	Paris, France
6.	1971	Charlotte, USA
7.	1971	Paris, France
8.	1971	Stockholm, Sweden

• 1972 – Louisville WCT, Montreal WCT, Rome WCT, Rotterdam WCT
• 1973 – Chicago WCT, Washington
• 1974 – Barcelona WCT, Bologna WCT, Stockholm
• 1975 – Barcelona WCT, WCT Finals, Los Angeles, Munich WCT, Rotterdam WCT, San Francisco, Stockholm – WCT, Wimbledon
• 1976 – Columbus WCT, Indianapolis WCT, Richmond WCT, Rome WCT, Rotterdam WCT
• 1978 – Colombus, Los Angeles, San Jose

Video[link]

• Wimbledon 1975 Final: Ashe vs. Connors Standing Room Only, DVD Release Date: October 30, 2007, Run Time: 120 minutes, ASIN: B000V02CTQ.

See also[link]

Tennis portal

• Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York, NY
• Arthur Ashe Athletic Center, Richmond, VA
• Arthur Ashe Courage Award
• Arthur Ashe Kids' Day
• Levels of the Game, a 1969 book by John McPhee, exploring the 1968 U.S. Open semifinal match between Clark Graebner and Arthur Ashe

Further reading[link]

Books by Arthur Ashe.

• Ashe, Arthur; Clifford George Gewecke (1967). Advantage Ashe. University of Michigan: Coward-McCann. p. 192. http://books.google.com/books?id=UcqBAAAAMAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Ashe, Arthur; Neil Amdur (1981). Off the court. New American Library. p. 230. ISBN 0-453-00400-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Ashe, Arthur; Rampersad, Arnold (1993). Days of Grace: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42396-6. 
• Ashe, Arthur (1993). A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete. New York, NY: Amistad. ISBN 1-56743-006-6, 1567430074, 1567430082. http://lccn.loc.gov/93007395. 

Books about Arthur Ashe, by date published.

• Robinson, Louie (1969). Arthur Ashe: tennis champion. Washington Square Press. p. 135. ISBN 0-671-29278-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=LqRPAAAACAAJ&dq=arthur+ashe&ei=kW6oSuXTIIPYNc_P6K4K. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Deford, Frank; Ashe, Arthur (1975). Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-20429-1. 
• Weissberg, Ted; Coretta Scott King (1991). Arthur Ashe—tennis great. Demco Media. p. 109. ISBN 0-7910-1115-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=wi-CNgAACAAJ. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Collins, David (1994). Arthur Ashe: against the wind. Dillon Press. p. 128. ISBN 0-87518-647-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=wgeSAAAACAAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved September 9, 2009. 
• Towle, Mike (2001). I Remember Arthur Ashe: Memories of a True Tennis Pioneer and Champion of Social Causes by the People Who Knew Him. Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 1-58182-149-2. 
• Steins, Richard (2005). Arthur Ashe:a biography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 103. ISBN 0-313-33299-1. 
• Mantell, Paul (2006). Arthur Ashe: Young Tennis Champion. Simon and Schuster. p. 224. ISBN 0-689-87346-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=TOgIQMjFE8QC&dq=arthur+ashe+school. 
• Henderson Jr., Douglas (2010). Endeavor to Persevere: A Memoir on Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Tennis and Life [Kindle Edition]. Untreed Readsurl=http://www.amazon.com/Endeavor-Persevere-Memoir-Connors-ebook/dp/B004EYTBHG. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arthur Ashe

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Arthur Ashe

• Arthur Ashe Learning Center (AALC) Website
• Sign Up for Arthur Ashe Learning Center (AALC) Newsletter
• Official Arthur Ashe website
• Arthur Ashe at the Association of Tennis Professionals

• Arthur Ashe at the International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Sports Illustrated Arthur Ashe tribute website
• Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
• FBI files—Arthur Ashe is mentioned within six references of records maintained within FBIHQ main files concerning the Black Panther Party, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the Revolutionary Union and two newspaper articles.
• The Game – My 40 Years in Tennis (1979) — Jack Kramer with Frank Deford (ISBN 0-399-12336-9)
• Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Manayunk, PA
• Finn, Robin. "Arthur Ashe, Tennis Star, Is Dead at 49," The New York Times, February 8, 1993.
• UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health & Wellness Center
• The short film Arthur Claims the Gold (1975) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]

Venus Williams

Country	United States
Residence	Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Born	(1980-06-17) June 17, 1980 (age 32) Lynwood, California, U.S.
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	72.5 kg (159.8 lbs)
Turned pro	October 31, 1994
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US $28,053,366 (2nd in overall earnings)
Singles
Career record	609–151 (80.3%)
Career titles	43 (tied-10th in overall rankings)
Highest ranking	No. 1 (February 25, 2002)
Current ranking	No. 53 (May 28, 2012)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	F (2003)
French Open	F (2002)
Wimbledon	W (2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008)
US Open	W (2000, 2001)
Other tournaments
Championships	W (2008)
Olympic Games	Gold medal (2000)
Doubles
Career record	150–23 (86.6%)
Career titles	19
Highest ranking	No. 1 (June 7, 2010)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	W (2001, 2003, 2009, 2010)
French Open	W (1999, 2010)
Wimbledon	W (2000, 2002, 2008, 2009)
US Open	W (1999, 2009)
Career record	25–6 (80.6%) Mixed Doubles
Career titles	2 Mixed Doubles
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
Australian Open	W (1998)
French Open	W (1998)
Wimbledon	F (2006)
US Open	QF (1998)
Last updated on: Mau 28, 2012.

Olympic medal record
Women's tennis
Competitor for the USA
Gold	2000 Sydney	Singles
Gold	2000 Sydney	Doubles
Gold	2008 Beijing	Doubles

Venus Ebony Starr Williams^[1] (born June 17, 1980), is an American professional tennis player who is a former World No. 1 and is ranked World No. 53 as of May 28, 2012 in singles.^[2] She has been ranked World No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association on three separate occasions. She became the World No. 1 for the first time on February 25, 2002, becoming the first black woman to achieve this feat during the Open Era.

Her 21 Grand Slam titles ties her for twelfth on the all time list^[3] and is more than any other active female player except for her younger sister Serena Williams. Venus Williams' titles consist of: seven in singles, twelve in women's doubles, and two in mixed doubles. Those seven Grand Slam singles titles ties her with four other women for twelfth place on the all-time list. Her five Wimbledon singles titles ties her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list. Venus Williams is one of only three women in the open era to have won five or more Wimbledon singles titles. From the 2000 Wimbledon Championships through the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments held. She is one of only five women in the open era to win 200 or more main draw Grand Slam singles matches.

Williams has won three Olympic gold medals, one in singles and two in women's doubles.^[4] She has won more Olympic gold medals than any other female tennis player. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Williams became only the second player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody in 1924.

With 43 career singles titles, Williams leads active players on the WTA Tour. Her 35-match winning streak from the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2000 Generali Ladies Linz tournament final is the longest winning streak since January 1, 2000. She is also one of only two active WTA players to have made the finals of all four Grand Slams, the other player being her sister Serena Williams.^[5]

Venus Williams has played against her sister Serena Williams in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of the 23 matches. They have played against each other in eight Grand Slam singles finals, with Serena winning six times. Beginning with the 2002 French Open, they opposed each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, the first time ever in the open era that the same two players played against each other in four consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, let alone sisters. On the doubles side, the pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles playing alongside each other.