In an upcoming issue of ESPN The Magazine, nine-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams will discuss her struggles with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that kept her off the pro tennis for six months in 2011 and 2012.
She will also be posing nude.
"If I would have thought about it before, there may have been a little less of a chance," Williams told ESPN about her decision to appear in the magazine's annual Body Issue.
Here is a preview:
Go all access w/@Venuseswilliams on her @ESPNMag Body Issue shoot (photo by Williams+Hirakawa) http://t.co/1VPOc44TtH pic.twitter.com/CTzXOjjCui
— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) June 23, 2014
Williams said compared to the bodies of some other athletes, she is "never going to be ripped." (Ripped, of course, is quite subjective.)
"But I'm powerful on the court," Williams adds. "That's all that matters."
Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, the world's No. 6 ranked men's player, will also be in the issue.
Younger sister Serena Williams was on the cover of the Body Issue in 2009.
