Will Venus win another Slam or are her best years now past?

Williams suffered numerous defeats in late 2009 on tour and often to players ranked outside of the top 10.

Those losses played a key role in her fall out of the top 5 in the WTA's ranking system. 

However, Williams saved a lot of ranking points at the Tour Championships in Doha and in doing so she retained a good ranking on tour which will help her retain a good seed in all tour events and Slams for at least the time being.

But Williams is a tricky player on tour right now for a few reasons.

Firstly, she will turn 30 years old in 2009, which is really getting up there for a tennis player, and, if you've been watching, you can already see some of the writing on the wall. 

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who won't be below the radar by the end of 2010, is a young and rising star and she advanced through some draws at Williams' expense in 2009.  What that suggests is that Williams isn't going to steamroll through the field anymore like she has in past years.

However Williams is still a tremendous athlete and even if she loses a little bit of an edge to younger players in 2010, she'll still have the same mental toughness on court.  She is still capable of bursting out, unexpectedly, to win big matches like she did at the World Championships and Williams can't be written off in 2010.

Williams is ranked 6th on tour and she has an opportunity to raise her rank a little bit.  Williams suffered early round exits at both the Australian Open and the French Open in 2009 and that means she has an opportunity to add a bunch of points to her ranking points total early in the year....if she can improve on her 2009 results.

If that took place and Williams went into Wimbledon with a solid seed, she could be set up nicely for another Wimbledon championship.

Here are Venus' odds for the 4 Grand Slams in 2010:

1.  Australian Open, +900 (9/1); Blue Square

Not recommended based on a history of non-title results and a 2nd round loss in 2009.

2.  French Open, +1800 (18/1); Paddy Power

Don't even think about it.  She's a third rounder.

3.  Wimbledon, +350 (7/2); Boylesports

This is a price that could shorten as the event approaches.  There's nothing wrong with taking Venus at +350 as she's likely to draw a lot of action closer to the event.  By betting now, you beat the punters to the punch and get the best value.

4.  US Open, +1000 (10/1); Boylesports

Williams is well past her best tennis at Flushing Meadows.

Our only recommendation with Venus at this point is to bet her to win Wimbledon but we recommend keeping the size to a sprinkle this far in advance.

Go to Boylesports to bet on WTA tennis.