Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on three separate occasions; as of October 26, 2009, she is ranked World No. 7. She is the reigning Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open doubles champion and has won 19 Grand Slam titles: seven in women's singles, ten in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. In addition, she has won three Olympic gold medals, one in women's singles and two in women's doubles. In 2005 Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 25th-best player in 40 years. Since this ranking however, she has won an additional three Grand Slam singles titles.

Williams reached the US Open finals at the age of 17, becoming the first woman since 1978 to reach a US Open final on her début and was the first unseeded female US Open finalist since 1958. After her breakthrough, Williams breached the top ten on the WTA world rankings for the first time in 1998 when she won the Lipton Championships in Miami. Between 2000 and 2001, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam tournaments she entered. Her 35-match winning streak remains the longest of the millennium. She became the World No. 1 for the first time in February 2002.

Williams suffered an abdominal injury in mid-2003 which prevented her from playing. Upon her return in 2004, she experienced inconsistent results. In 2005, she won her first Grand Slam title in four years at Wimbledon, but since then she suffered from a wrist injury and only played six events in 2006. Her world rankings suffered as a result, being World No. 54 in February 2006. However, Williams eventually won another Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon in 2007, becoming the lowest-seeded and lowest-ranked Wimbledon champion in history. Williams returned to the top ten later that year and has since competed in every Grand Slam event. She returned to the top three for the first time in six years in May 2009.