• Aiur
  • Top 50 Player
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  • Registered: May. 22, 2009
  • Posts: 305

Topic: Venus

Anyone know what her deal is? I didn't know what her condition was heading into the Open, just went with her because I didn't see any other unseeded players that were worth taking. Did she aggravate some type of injury in her first match?

  • Tono
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  • Registered: Aug. 15, 2009
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Re: Venus

Aiur she has been diagnosed with "Sjögren's Syndrome" an auto-immune disease which is an ongoing medical condition that affects your energy levels and causes fatigue and joint pain.
Guess she must have been feeling exhausted even before she was due to play or something...very unfortunate for Venus and everybody that picked her too sad

Last edited by Tono-DEFENDING-YODA-CHAMP (Aug. 31, 2011 10:26pm)

  • Don
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  • Registered: May. 22, 2010
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Re: Venus

This is not an ailment with a cure.  Unless medical science goes from knowing precious little about autoimmune diseases (and even less about their causes) all the way to knowing how to cure them, Venus will have to deal with this for the rest of her life.  The goal with these ailments at this point in time is simply managing the symptoms as well as possible.

Venus is lucky in one respect: most autoimmune diseases don't even have names yet.  They are among the least well understood problems of the human body.  At least her problem is one that has been identified, so they know a little bit about it. 

Her continuing to play tennis competitively certainly is in doubt at this point.  Thank God Venus has a life and business interests outside of tennis.  Still, it's clear she loves the game and wants very much to continue to compete, so I feel sure she'll try -- which may end up being an increasing source of frustration for her.

  • Aiur
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Re: Venus

Wow, didn't know it was that serious. I thought she might've had an ankle injury or something. Hopefully she has access to medicine necessary to lead a normal life, even if that means walking away from tennis at this point. Best of luck to her.

  • Registered: Jan. 14, 2011
  • Posts: 184

Re: Venus

Yeah, it is a pretty serious condition. I hope the best for her, but realistically this may be the means to an end of a long and successful career. Truly sad to hear this.