Venus Williams Has a Vision of Tennis Grand Slam Sweep

Lauren LynchNov 19, 2010

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(November 19, 2010) Venus Williams was pumping her legs with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old chasing an ice cream truck, hurling herself over hills and cornering with precision during a heart-pumping work-out before a nation-wide audience yesterday. All that activity took place as Venus demonstrated a mountain bike workout on The Talk in a promotional push for EA Sports' Active 2 interactive video workout.

Showing no signs of stress from the left knee injury that prompted her to pull the plug on her season and limited her to 11 matches since the French Open, Williams has a much grander vision of for her return to tournament tennis.

Williams wants to complete the career Grand Slam in singles and mixed doubles and believes mastering a mixed major sweep may be more difficult than winning the Australian Open and French Open singles crowns currently missing from her collection.

"It's almost impossible to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles at one Grand Slam and I would love to hold all three titles at all of the majors," Venus told Reuters' Mark Lamport-Stokes.

The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion partnered with Tennis Channel's Justin Gimelstob to win the 1998 Australian Open and French Open mixed crowns, but the pair lost to John McEnroe and Steffi Graf at Wimbledon. Venus, who was a 2002 French Open finalist and a 2003 Australian Open runner-up, says winning mixed may be most challenging.

"The one thing that seems elusive for me is the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon and the US Open," Williams told Reuters. "I've gotten close to winning the singles at the Australian (Open) and the French (Open) so I feel like that's within my reach. But the mixed, that's going to be the hard part."

The 2012 Olympic tennis event will be staged at Wimbledon. Venus and Serena have combined to claim nine of the last 11 Wimbledon singles championships. Serena says she plans to play the Olympic mixed doubles with Andy Roddick. Would Venus consider partnering with John Isner, Mardy Fish or Sam Querrey in the London Olympics? Venus, who swept gold medals in singles and doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games, says it is a goal.

"And there's also mixed doubles in the London schedule so if I don't get that title as well, then we're going to have another elusive one to chase," Williams told Reuters with a laugh. "Serena and I will have to be in the best shape of our lives for London. We have to be machines to play in three events. It's something like 14 matches in eight days. We had better be ready."

Aiming to play the 2011 Australian Open, the 30-year-old Williams says she plans to return to the practice court soon.

"Hopefully I will be hitting balls pretty soon. I have been getting stronger and doing my best to get ready for next year," Williams told Reuters. "It's tough being on the sidelines but it's also encouraging because I will come back with a new fire."

Williams missed the entire US Open Series due to the knee injury. Her court appearances were confined to World Team Tennis, a few clinics and a book signing appearance at the Los Angeles tournament. Though she was short on match play, Williams wielded an abundance of experience, a whipping 120 mph first serve and her competitive acumen to reach the US Open semifinals where she tested defending champion Kim Clijsters in a tight three-setter before succumbing, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 in a rollercoaster of a wildly windy match.

Though her quest to reach her first US Open final since 2002 came up short, Williams said after that match she will be back.

"I definitely feel like I'll be back next year. This is what I do, and I feel like I played great tennis even with minimal preparation," Venus said. "Obviously I would have liked to win this match and be playing tomorrow. I may have lost the match, but that's just this match. There will be others."

This was a schizophrenic season for Venus, who played some of her best tennis in years, but missed large sections of the season with injury. She concluded the year with a 38-7 record, two singles titles and an 18-1 doubles mark with Serena, including the Australian Open doubles championship.

One of only two women to reach at least the fourth round in all four majors, Williams suffered a surprising Wimbledon quarterfinal loss to World No. 82 Tsvetana Pironkova then did not play again until the Open. In New York, she showed she's still a major force, but can she keep her body intact for a full season at an age where many players begin to break down?

Venus still owns one of the most lethal first serves in the sport. She produced a 15-match winning streak earlier this season in winning back-to-back titles on hard court (in Dubai) and on clay (in Acapulco) and went on to reach the Sony Ericsson Open final in Miami before suffering a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Clijsters.

On her worst surface, red clay, Williams beat eventual French Open champion Francesca Schiavone and eventual French Open finalist Samantha Stosur in succession to reach the Madrid final last month. She played some spring events without any adhesive taping on her knees or thighs, an encouraging sign for a woman who has long competed with tape adorning some part of her body.

Williams posted a 19-3 hard-court record this season with her hard-court losses coming to Na Li in the Australian Open quarterfinals and to Clijsters in the Miami final and the US Open semifinal.