The Day Venus Took Her Earrings Off
For four years, the questions had followed Venus Williams everywhere. Had the injuries taken too much? Had Serena passed her for good? Were the days of Venus dominating Wimbledon over?
The numbers weren't kind. Venus arrived at Wimbledon in 2005 without a Grand Slam title since the 2001 US Open — four years of injuries, difficult losses, and the unavoidable comparisons that came with sharing a surname and a generation with Serena Williams. By the summer of 2005, Venus was still respected. Feared? Not quite. Not like before.
Then Wimbledon began.
The draw opened up, the grass suited her game, and suddenly Venus started looking like the Venus people had quietly stopped expecting. Not the former champion searching for answers. The real thing.
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The quarterfinal against Mary Pierce was dangerous. Pierce was fresh off a run to the French Open final, playing some of the best tennis of her career.Venus began strong.The opening set lasted 26 minutes and ended 6-0. Pierce, one of the cleanest ball-strikers in the game, could barely stay with her. Venus served big, attacked relentlessly, struck the ball with a freedom that had been largely absent from her game for years.
She was also wearing the most magnificent pair of oversized gold hoop earrings Centre Court had ever seen.
They caught the light. They caught the eye. One live blogger, swept up in the moment, suggested Venus's resurgence might be owed to "a particularly alluring pair of giant gold hoop earrings." It was a joke. But it wasn't entirely wrong — there was something determined and theatrical about Venus that afternoon, earrings swinging, serving bombs, making Pierce look like a practice partner.
Then the second set arrived and the match changed. The ghosts and doubts of past seasons returned.
Pierce settled in. The crowd leaned forward. What had looked like a coronation became something rawer and harder. Pierce pushed to a tiebreak and carved out multiple set points. For Venus, it was one of those moments that careers sometimes turn on quietly, without anyone fully realizing it at the time. The earrings were still there, swinging with every serve, every sprint, every escape. The tiebreak stretched to 12-10. Again and again Pierce threatened to send the match to three sets and an outcome no one could foresee. Again and again Venus found a way to fight back.
When it was finally over — 6-0, 7-6 — Venus had passed something more than a quarterfinal.
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She walked out for the semifinal against Maria Sharapova without the earrings.
Maybe it meant nothing. Maybe she just chose a different look. But anyone watching closely felt the shift before a ball was struck. Sharapova was the defending champion, the new face of the sport, the woman who had arrived at Wimbledon the year before and dismantled Serena in the final — and here was Venus Williams walking onto Centre Court like she'd already made a decision about how this was going to go.
No jewelry. All business.
She beat Sharapova in straight sets.
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The final against Lindsay Davenport lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes — the longest women's singles final in Wimbledon history. Davenport led by a set. Davenport held a match point. Venus refused to lose. Final score: 4-6, 7-6, 9-7.
Her first Grand Slam in nearly four years. Her third Wimbledon crown.
Most fans remember the final. Some remember the semifinal. A few remember the tiebreak against Pierce. But the image that stays with me is simpler than any of that — a pair of giant gold hoop earrings catching the Wimbledon light, and then, one match later, gone.
Somewhere between surviving Mary Pierce and facing Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams stopped playing like a former champion trying to get one more chance.
She looked like Venus Williams again.