DUBAI // During the past three years, the debilitating effects of Sjogren’s syndrome have left Venus Williams with painful joints, swelling, inflammation, numbness and fatigue, as well as forcing her to give up her favourite foods and adopt a vegan diet.
The incurable autoimmune disease has, however, failed to dent her confidence or curb the 33-year-old American’s enthusiasm for tennis.
“I won’t let it beat me,” Venus had said defiantly in 2011, after being diagnosed with the disease, and she has been fighting it head-on since.
“I am always encouraged, each and every match I get to play,” Venus said on Saturday as she prepares for her first appearance at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships since winning back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010. “I am definitely a very good competitor, no matter what my circumstances. I know I can rely on that.”
Venus was world No 5 when she won her second Dubai title and started 2011 in the same position but slipped down the rankings as the effects of Sjogren’s syndrome started to take hold.
This year, she is down to No 48 but is still one of tennis’ biggest attractions, and the Dubai Tennis Championships organisers were more than happy to offer her a wild card.
“I haven’t been in Dubai for four years, so it’s great to be back and have the opportunity to play, and I am looking forward to my first round,” the seven-time grand slam singles champion said after being given a first-round match against Russian Elena Vesnina, who has a 2-0 win record against the American, possibly because those two matches were played in the past two years.
Venus has made a good start to 2014, though, reaching the final at Auckland, where she stretched Ana Ivanovic to three sets. She lost to Ekaterina Makarova in the opening round at the Australian Open last month, but she forced the defending Dubai champion Petra Kvitova to three sets in Doha last week and had match point in the third set tie-break.
“I have a lot of good matches and I have lost a lot of close matches to top players this year,” she said. “I just haven’t played a lot. So I just need a chance to keep getting into those matches and coming close to winning. It’s only a matter of time before I step over the finish line.
“The last time I came, I was the champion. This year, I will have to work hard in each and every round to advance. I would love to have another title, but it’s not going to be easy. A lot of things have happened in my life since then [2010]. It’s a big step for me just to be able to be here, so I feel blessed and excited. I am happy and energised.”
If Venus does win her next four matches, she could potentially face her sister, Serena Williams, for the tournament title with both landing on the opposite side of the draw. Many of the tennis fans in Dubai will be hoping for exactly that.
“To have a chance to meet in the final, we both have to play well,” Venus said, joking she had twisted her sister’s arms “really hard” to force her into accepting a wild card for this week.
“You can always think what you want, but you got to do some action,” she said. “So I got to do some action called ‘winning’ to make that [final] happen.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
