Venus Williams' sparkling personality is beginning to shine through in a way which is currently mirrored by the standard of her tennis.

The 20-year-old warmed the hearts of the game's fans with her emotional celebrations after winning her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon earlier in the year.

There have been few such charismatic players in the women's game in recent years.

And while her confident attitude could be viewed as over the top, she nevertheless remains outspoken and consistently wears her heart on her sleeve.

Her Wimbledon victory capped an incredible rise which began with her learning to play tennis on courts peppered with broken glass and crack cocaine vials in the Compton ghetto where dad Richard set up home to toughen up his girls' attitude.

Indeed, it is perhaps this upbringing which instilled in Venus, and sister Serena, an ability to seemingly remain unfazed by success or celebrity.

After becoming the US Open women's champion on Saturday, Venus Williams demanded to know why US president Bill Clinton had not stayed to watch her match with Lindsay Davenport - noting he left after Pete Sampras' semi-final win over Lleyton Hewitt.

"What happened - where'd you go?" Williams asked him in a phone call.

Clinton explained that the brief rain delay sent him for the doors because "I had to come home to have dinner with Hillary."

Williams, who became the seventh women's player in the Open era to win Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year, was not shy in telling Clinton that she wanted dinner too, but had to play her match first.

The victory boosts Williams' winning streak to 26 consecutive matches with titles at Stanford, San Diego and New Haven sandwiched between her first two Grand Slam crowns.

What makes Williams' year even more outstanding is that she never touched a racket in competition from November 1999 to this April because of tendinitis in both wrists.

Resolve

It was only back in March that her father, Richard, was suggesting that Venus might retire for good from the tour.

He was of the opinion that his daughter, who was taking college courses at a fashion institute in Fort Lauderdale had more important things to do than concentrate on the game.

But Williams, who called the retirement talk vicious rumours, was drawn back to the game, not only because of her love of the competition, but because "I missed the countries, like visiting other places."

And her father seemed to have forgotten his retirement pronouncement on Saturday when he ran down to the court to hug his daughter - and then do a celebratory jig for all to see.

Although Williams has returned to tennis, she will return to the classroom for 11 weeks following the Olympic Games, a move that will prevent her from playing enough tournaments this Autumn to move into the world number one ranking.

"I have a problem with getting bored," Williams said.

"I'll start something and not finish. I went to school and I have to go back and finish things in my life."

With an attitude like that, and a resolve which seems to be strengthening all the time, her fellow competitors on the women's tour will be forgiven for feeling a little anxious at their prospects of halting Venus Williams meteoric rise to the top.