Venus Williams
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
47 free Venus Williams trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Venus Williams turned pro at 14, reached her first major final at 17 and won Wimbledon five times, but her most lasting win may have been an essay: her 2006 piece in The Times shamed Wimbledon into equal prize money, and she was the first woman to collect the same cheque as the men's champion. She was the first African-American woman to be ranked No. 1 in the Open era, and she and her sister have never lost a major doubles final. These 47 questions cover the whole career: Lynwood and Compton, the Rick Macci years and the 63–0 junior record, the 1997 US Open, Sydney 2000, the four straight family finals, the 2005 and 2007 Wimbledon comebacks, the 129 mph serve, the Sjögren diagnosis and the 2017 revival, plus the interior design firm, the fashion line, the Dolphins stake and the degrees earned mid-career. Easy questions stick to the title counts and the famous matches; the expert tier asks about mixed doubles partners, book titles and year-end rankings. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation that adds one more fact. Play it solo or print it for a tennis-club quiz night.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many Grand Slam singles titles has Venus Williams won?
Seven
Seven: five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. It could have been double that, as her own sister beat her in seven other major finals.
Q 02Which 15-year-old qualifier beat Venus in the first round of Wimbledon in 2019?
Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff, ranked 313th, won 6-4, 6-4 and said she cried after a win for the first time. Venus had won four major titles before Gauff was even born.
Q 03On which city's public courts did Venus and her sister learn tennis?
Compton
Compton: her father moved the family there on purpose when Venus was a toddler, believing a rough neighbourhood would give his daughters a fighter's mentality. She was born in nearby Lynwood.
Q 04To which state did Venus's family move in 1991 so she and her sister could train with coach Rick Macci?
Florida
Florida: Rick Macci coached both sisters there from 1991 to 1995, until their father, who had taught himself the game from books and videos, took over the job again.
Q 05Unbeaten in 63 junior matches, Venus did what for three years before turning professional?
Played no tournaments
Played no tournaments: her father pulled her off the junior circuit at 11, partly to spare her early pressure. Her 1994 debut in Oakland was her first official match in over three years, and she won it.
Q 06Who beat the 17-year-old Venus in her first major final, the 1997 US Open?
Martina Hingis
Martina Hingis won the final, but Venus was the story: unseeded, on her US Open debut. In the semi-final Irina Spîrlea bumped into her at a changeover.
Q 07At the 1999 Australian Open, Venus was docked a point when what fell onto the court?
Her hair beads
Her hair beads: some came loose during a point in her quarter-final, and the umpire docked her a point for causing a disturbance. She protested that the call was unfair, and went on to lose the match.
Q 08In 1998 Venus and her sister won all four Grand Slam titles between them in which event?
Mixed doubles
Mixed doubles: Venus won the Australian and French Opens with Justin Gimelstob, beating her own sister's team in the Paris final, and her sister then took Wimbledon and the US Open with Max Mirnyi.
Q 09Whom did Venus beat in the final to win her first major singles title at Wimbledon 2000?
Lindsay Davenport
Lindsay Davenport was the defending champion, while Venus had played only nine matches all year after tendinitis in both wrists. She became the first Black woman to win Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in 1958.
Q 10Which Russian did Venus beat in the 2000 Sydney Olympic singles final?
Elena Dementieva
Elena Dementieva lost 6-2, 6-4. A day later Venus won the doubles with her sister, becoming the first woman since Helen Wills in 1924 to take both golds at one Games.
Q 11Venus's father wrote a plan for his daughters' tennis careers after seeing what on television?
A winner's prize cheque
A winner's prize cheque: her father saw a tennis champion handed a five-figure sum and decided his next children would be players too. By his account, he wrote the plan before Venus was even born.
Q 12At which 2001 tournament was the family booed after Venus withdrew shortly before a semi-final against her sister?
Indian Wells
Indian Wells: Venus pulled out with a knee injury just before the match, and the crowd jeered the family at the final. Her sister stayed away for 14 years and Venus for 15.
Q 13What does Venus mean when she jokingly calls herself a 'chegan'?
Q 21Which first did Venus achieve in June 2010?
Doubles world No. 1
Doubles world No. 1: she and her sister had just won the French Open, their fourth major doubles title in a row, so they held all four at once.
Q 22What autoimmune condition forced Venus out of the 2011 US Open?
Sjögren syndrome
Sjögren syndrome saps energy and makes joints ache, and she withdrew before her second-round match. She changed her diet and, six years later, reached two major finals.
Q 23How many Olympic gold medals has Venus won?
Four
Four: singles and doubles in 2000, then doubles again in 2008 and 2012, all three with her sister. She never lost an Olympic final until 2016, when a silver in the mixed event became her fifth medal.
A cheating vegan
A cheating vegan: she switched to a mostly raw, plant-based diet for her health after an autoimmune diagnosis, but admits she is only human and sometimes strays.
Q 14Whom did Venus displace to become No. 1 in 2002?
Jennifer Capriati
Jennifer Capriati had kept the top spot by winning the Australian Open, but Venus then won titles in Paris and Antwerp in successive weeks to overtake her.
Q 15Venus lost four straight major finals in 2002–03, a winning run nicknamed what?
Serena Slam
Serena Slam: her younger sister beat her in four finals in a row, from the 2002 French Open to the 2003 Australian Open, and so held all four major titles at once.
Q 16Venus's 2005 final set which Wimbledon record for women's finals?
Longest match
Longest match: it ran two and three-quarter hours, and Venus, seeded only 14th, saved a match point before taking the deciding set 9-7.
Q 17As the 23rd seed, Venus beat which Frenchwoman in the 2007 Wimbledon final?
Marion Bartoli
Marion Bartoli had stunned world No. 1 Justine Henin in the semi-final, saying the sight of Pierce Brosnan in the crowd made her raise her game. Venus beat her in straight sets.
Q 18Venus held which women's tour record from 2007 until Sabine Lisicki broke it in 2014?
Fastest serve
Fastest serve: she hit 129 mph at the 2007 US Open. The 131 mph serve that beat it came in a first-round match Lisicki went on to lose.
Q 19Venus won five Wimbledon singles titles, each time receiving a trophy that shares her name: the Venus Rosewater what?
Dish
Dish: the Venus Rosewater Dish was first presented in 1886, almost a century before she was born, and its decoration shows figures from classical mythology, not tennis. Champions keep a smaller replica.
Q 20In 2025, at 45, Venus became the oldest woman to win a tour singles match since which player in 2004?
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova won a match at 47 in 2004. Venus, listed by the tour as inactive until that week after surgery and 16 months away, beat a player 22 years her junior in Washington.
Q 24With whom did Venus win Olympic mixed doubles silver in 2016?
Rajeev Ram
Rajeev Ram and Venus lost an all-American final to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock on a deciding tie-break. It was the first Olympic final she had ever lost.
Q 25What links Venus's 14 major doubles finals with her sister?
All won
All won: 14 finals, 14 titles, six of them at Wimbledon. The last came in 2016, a few hours after her sister had won the singles final there.
Q 26Venus's run to the 2017 Australian Open final set what Open era record?
Longest gap between major finals
Longest gap between major finals: her last had been at Wimbledon in 2009. In between, an energy-sapping autoimmune illness diagnosed in 2011 had forced her out of the US Open.
Q 27Who beat Venus in the 2017 Wimbledon final?
Garbiñe Muguruza
Garbiñe Muguruza saved two set points at 4-5 in the first set and then won the last nine games, taking the second set 6-0. Venus, 37, had been one point from leading the final.
Q 28Which unseeded American beat Venus in the 2017 US Open semi-final and went on to win the title?
Sloane Stephens
Sloane Stephens had been ranked 957th only weeks earlier after foot surgery and 11 months out, and took the deciding set 7-5. All four semi-finalists that year were American.
Q 29Venus's 2006 newspaper essay, headlined 'I'm only a second class champion', pushed Wimbledon to grant what?
Equal prize money
Equal prize money was announced in February 2007, eight months after her essay ran in The Times. She won the title that summer and was the first woman paid the same as the men's champion.
Q 30In 2025 Mattel marked Venus's 2007 Wimbledon win with which product?
A Barbie doll
A Barbie doll in Mattel's Inspiring Women series wears her all-white kit from that final. Offered any outfit from her career, she chose the year Wimbledon first paid women the same as men.