Venus follows sibling Serena Williams - bows out of Roland Garros

It is unlikely that many would have heard of Dr Henrik Samuel Conrad Sjögren, a Swedish Ophthalmologist who passed awy in 1986.  In some movies, you would hear the Doctor utter some disease name, not intelligible to common man expressing that ‘nothing is in their hands’ – ‘Sjogren’s syndrome’ is perhaps one such illness.

Yesterday, I had posted about Serena Williams going down  to the unhearlded 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano of France - a stunning defeat of 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss  at Roland Garros. Read the earlier post here :  http://sampspeak.blogspot.in/2012/05/career-high-for-virginie-razzano-serena.html.  Eight Grand Slam finals had been ‘all Williams affairs’

Known too well,  is the sibling rivalry and the domination the William sisters had.. after Serena, Venus Williams also followed being knocked out of French Open not only by a younger opponent, alos by an illness which has changed her life and the way she plays.  Afflicted by the disease,  Williams says she wakes up each morning unsure of how she will feel.  Venus Williams has been a fierce competitor, one who would not give up easily and one who fought from behind to win.  Venus Ebony Starr Williams  was World No. 1 for sometime thought her ranking has dropped down to lowly 53 now.   She has an impressive tally of  21 Grand Slam titles, which is more than any other active female player except  her younger sister Serena Williams.   She has won Wimbledon Singles five times and has added 3 Olympic medals to that – 1 in Singles and the other 2 in Women’s doubles.  She has  43 career singles titles,  and  her 35-match winning streak from the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2000 Generali Ladies Linz tournament final is the longest winning streak since January  2000. 

Venus Williams has played  her sister Serena Williams  23 times and has won 10 of them.  in 23 professional matches since 1998, with Serena winning 13 of the 23 matches. On the doubles side, the pair have won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles playing alongside each other.  Venus is a powerful baseline player more adapted to grass using her height to her advantage in reaching the ball.   She holds the record for the fastest serve struck by a woman in a main draw event. At the Zurich Open, she recorded 130 mph (210 km/h)

Radwanska smiling

A player known for wrapping the match in quick time, she is struggling, glum and lacks the verve that carried her to top once.   At Roland Garros, Venus  barely put up any resistance and lost 6-2, 6-3 to No 3-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.   Venus made  33 unforced errors, 27 more than Radwanska ending up a lopsided 60-minute defeat in the second round of the French Open. Though it would rank as any upset with 3^rd seed ousting the 53^rd, Venus getting eliminated in the 2^nd round is big news.   The player who eliminated her - Agnieszka Radwańska is a Polish player who has reached five Grand Slam quarterfinals.

Williams revealed her diagnosis in late August at the U.S. Open, when she withdrew before her second—round match. She skipped the Australian Open in January, before returning    to the tour in March in a bid to earn a berth on the U.S Olympic team.  She was diagnosed to have been afflicted with - Sjogren’s syndrome, a mysterious disease caused by an overproduction of B lymphocytes, the cells of the immune system that make antibodies. The deluge of B cells clogs glands.  The disease often starts out as an uncomfortable feeling in the eyes and mouth, food becomes tasteless,  some have swollen glands in their necks,  and makes the person feel weak and tired – and it is stated that there is no way to alleviate this.  Sjögren's syndrome is a systemic autoimmune disease in which immune cells attack and destroy the exocrine glands that produce tears and saliva.  It is named after Swedish ophthalmologist Henrik Sjögren who first described it.  Nine out of ten Sjögren's patients are women and the average age of onset is late 40s.

Often Physicians tell that lack of exercise and sedentary life-style causes disorders and rarely even those who are extremely active with physical activity also get afflicted with disorders

With regards – S. Sampathkumar