2009 SUMMARY
Titles Won: Dubai, Acapulco
Best Grand Slam Result: Runner-up: Wimbledon
Win/Loss Record: 36-13
Record Against Top 10: 4-3
SEC History: Making fourth appearance (nine qualifications); champion in 2008
Williams' Sony Ericsson WTA Tour bio
Venus Williams didn't fly quite as high in 2009 as she did in 2008. There was no Grand Slam title this year, although she did make it to the final at Wimbledon for the eighth time, only to be beaten by her sister, Serena. But she did win her 40th and 41st Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles, spurring a springtime rise to No.3 for the first time since 2003, and collected three Grand Slam doubles crowns with Serena, taking the family haul to 10. Indeed, after the US Open Venus also rose to No.3 in the doubles rankings, a new career-high.
After her gritty sweep through the draw at last year's Sony Ericsson Championships - she went undefeated in round robin play before beating Jelena Jankovic in the semis and Vera Zvonareva in the final - Venus arrived in Melbourne in January as a hot favorite to claim a first Australian Open title. It was not to be, though, as swashbuckling Spaniard Carla Suárez Navarro rose splendidly to the occasion of a second round night match, edging the American, 7-5, in the third set.
But Venus bounced back terrifically in February, winning back-to-back titles on two different surfaces. Seeded sixth at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships she beat Elena Dementieva and Serena before overcoming surprise finalist Virginie Razzano for the hardcourt trophy; days later she was on the clay of Acapulco, where she beat Flavia Pennetta in the final. That win must have been gratifying, for the Italian had won two of their three clashes in 2008.
Photo Gallery: Williams' 2009 season
Venus took her good form to the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, where she fell to Serena in the semis, making her 15-2 for the season heading to the main clay court swing. The high point during this period was a semifinal run at Rome, where she was edged by Dinara Safina in three sets; otherwise there were early losses at Charleston (to eventual champion Sabine Lisicki), Madrid (to Alisa Kleybanova) and the French Open, where she was seeded third but fell to Agnes Szavay in the third round.
Order was restored at Wimbledon; even though a sixth title didn't quite eventuate, her crushing 61 60 semifinal defeat of Safina was a talking point of the fortnight, and from there Venus almost won a third title of the season back on hardcourts at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford. Imperious all week - she routed Dementieva 60 61 in the semis - in the final Venus was upset by Marion Bartoli - revenge for Wimbledon in 2007.
Since then, Venus has won just five matches - three of them at the US Open, where she was dispatched by Kim Clijsters in the round of 16 - and lost five. Pennetta turned the tables on her at Cincinnati, world No.64 Kateryna Bondarenko did the job at Toronto (not counting the unranked Clijsters, this was on paper her worst defeat of the year) while in Asia Venus acquired a new nemesis in Russian teen Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat her at both Tokyo and Beijing.
But maybe this just means the 29-year-old will arrive in Doha fresh. Venus is 36-13 for the year, and 4-3 against the Top 10. As a launch pad for a successful defense, that's more than good enough.
Highlights: Dubai: S. Williams vs. V. Williams Interviews: Venus Moves On In Stanford
