Season Review: Venus Williams

A lot was expected from Venus Williams after her very successful 2015. She finished 2015 with a title run in the inaugural WTA Elite Trophy held in Zhuhai, pushing her from No.11 to No.7 in the rankings to finish the year in the Top 10 of the rankings for the first time since 2010. However, she had a disappointing season this year, falling out of the Top 10 in the rankings.

Venus Williams. Photo by Reuters

Win/Loss Record:

Venus has a 26-15 record for this year, with 8 of those losses coming against those players ranked outside of the Top 20. Compared to her 41-13 record in 2015, it can be considered fairly disappointing as she had less wins and suffered more losses.

High Points:

Venus’ first and only title of the year came at the inaugural Taiwan Open, strolling to the title without losing a set. This title gave her a boost in her confidence especially after a very disappointing Australian Swing. On her way to the title, she defeated Urszula Radwanska, a former Top 30 player, Anastasija Sevastova, who would go on to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open, Yulia Putintseva, who would also go on to reach the quarterfinals of the French Open, and Misaki Doi, the 2^nd seed, in the final.

Venus Williams with her title in Taiwan. Photo by Taiwan Open

Venus’ disappointing season also had another high point, with one of those being a semifinal appearance at the Wimbledon Championships. Her return to the semifinals was her first Grand Slam semifinal appearance since 2010. She secured her long awaited appearance to the semifinals by beating Donna Vekic, Maria Sakkari, and took revenge against Daria Kasatkina in a 2 hours and 42 minutes thriller. Also, she defeated Carla Suarez Navarro and surprise quarterfinalist Yaroslava Shvedova to reach the semifinal. Her success at Wimbledon was coupled with a title run in the Doubles competition, winning the title along with her sister Serena Williams as an unseeded pairing, defeating 5 seeded pairings along the way, most notably the Russian pairing of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals.

The Williams sisters with their Doubles Titles at Wimbledon. Photo by Getty Images

Venus reached the final in Stanford, only to lose to Britain Johanna Konta, in what would be her 1^st ever WTA title. Nevertheless, the good performance allowed Venus to rise one spot to No.6 in the rankings, her highest ranking since being diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome in 2011.

Low Points:

Venus started the season very poorly, losing to youngster Daria Kasatkina in Auckland, where she was the defending champion having defeated Caroline Wozniacki in the final last year. She then lost in the opening round of the Australian Open to Johanna Konta, the eventual semifinalist. Having reached the quarterfinals the year before, she was defending a chunk of points and this loss caused her to drop out of the Top 10 in the rankings.

Her return to Indian Wells for the first time since 2001 did not produce anything fruitful as expected as she crashed out immediately in the second round, after receiving a bye, to qualifier Kurumi Nara in straight sets. Her poor run continued in Miami when yet another qualifier, this time Elena Vesnina, defeated her.

A disappointing clay court season then saw her not reaching any quarterfinals in any tournaments she played, losing in the 2^nd round of Rome to Timea Babos, 3^rd round of Charleston to Yulia Putitntseva, and 4^th round to Timea Bacsinszky at Roland Garros.

After her good performance in Stanford, Venus reached no more quarterfinals in the year, which can be considered very disappointing, considering she had a lot of points to defend in the 2^nd half of the year. 

Perhaps, the most disappointing loss of all was against Kirsten Flipkens in the first round of the Olympics, losing the hard-fought opportunity to win a medal. In the Doubles competition at the Olympics, she and her sister lost in the first round to the Czech pairing of Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova, the eventual Bronze Medalists.

Venus Williams at the Rio Olympics. Photo by Reuters

Having match point opportunity in her 4^th round match at the US Open against Karolina Pliskova, she wasted the opportunity and lost to the eventual finalist.

She had a poor Asian hardcourt swing, losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in Wuhan, winning just 4 games and failing to defend her title that was worth 900 points and therefore the poor display pushed her out of the Top 10 of the rankings. Furthermore, she suffered a shock defeat against the resurgent Peng Shuai in straight sets, much to the delight of the home crowd. At Hong Kong, where she was defeated by Alize Cornet in 3 sets for the first time in her career.

It turned out to be her last tournament of the season, having withdrawn from the WTA Elite Trophy despite being the defending champion and qualifying for the tournament. The failure to defend her title made her finish the year at No.17 in the rankings, but nevertheless, it was her 3^rd consecutive Top 20 finish.

Season Grade: C

It was generally a poor season from Venus, having only reached 2 finals and winning 1 title. It was expected from her to carry on her good form from the last year, but apparently age have caught up with her. Nevertheless, a 3^rd consecutive Top 20 finish at the end of the year is really impressive for a 36 year-old.