Venus Rises Again Friday, 17 June, 2005 Venus Williams has had to learn about life the hard way and after two years spent dealing with family tragedy and injury problems, she is back, but she is not the same. Torn muscles will heal with time, but when your world falls apart the scars still remain. On a September night in 2003 Venus received the news that her half sister, Yetunde, had been shot and killed in Compton, California. At the time, she was in the middle of a six month injury break with a torn stomach muscle, but none of that mattered once the phone rang that night. Venus had been working herself harder than ever on the practice court in order to regain her former dominance on the tour. However, tennis concerns such as persistent injuries and a relatively low ranking position, suddenly seemed irrelevant. "It definitely gives you perspective," she said. "It also shows that you can't always control your circumstances and you can't always control your future. Although you prepare for one thing, you may get something else. I definitely learned that: now I just let it flow each day." Even so, the small matter of winning grand slam titles still niggled away at her. She was doing the work but, as another little ache or pain kicked in, she could not get near to the final, much less the trophy. "I think the most important part for me was almost to forgive myself for not being where I wanted to be and realise that I couldn't control that." she said. "It wasn't necessarily that I hadn't worked hard enough - or I didn't want it more - it was just the fact that I couldn't do it. Being able to realise this was the most important step for me to get better." This year, though, she has been getting a lot better. Those she has beaten - the list is quite impressive and includes her sister, Serena - are beginning to sit up and take notice. Venus, they reckon, is back to where she was a couple of years ago. Now all she has to do is string those performances together at a grand slam event and anything can happen. Not that Williams is going to get carried away. Self confidence has never been a problem for her but, on the other hand, life has proved to her that it is best to take nothing for granted. "I always had the attitude that I only cared about what I cared about and what the next person thought of me was just not that important," she said. "To face criticism is not very easy, especially in the last year or so, especially when I was not really in the best situation, that's not that much fun. You definitely find out who you're real friends are and who your real fans are." Venus has a number of non-sporting strings to her bow, with an interior design company to her name, as well as dabbling in fashion design, and publishising a book with her sister: "Venus and Serena: Serving from the Hip". "I love tennis but obviously I can't do it my whole life," she added. "I definitely have to find out what I love. I can't wait until I'm 35 and finished with tennis and then find I don't know what's happening next - or find out I don't know what I love or who I am off the tennis court. My parents have never wanted that for us and I'm so happy that they were there to guide us and let us find out who we were off the court." On court, Venus will have the chance to meet Serena at Wimbledon this year, in the fourth round of the ladies' singles. If they manage to negiotiate their first three rounds unscathed then it will be the fourth time the sisters will have played each other at The Championships - the other times being two final encounters in 2002 and 2003, and a semi-final in 2000. Written by Alix Ramsey --

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