Venus Williams Unsure if She 'Will Ever Feel Normal Again'

(FOX Sports) - Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams told FOX Sports she does not know if she "will ever feel normal again" due to her battle with Sjogren's syndrome.

Roughly six months since being diagnosed with the immune system disorder, Williams is about to try to come back.

She hopes to get into this summer's London Olympics, but she will have to grind her way through the most physically demanding part of the season even though she doesn't know how she will feel the next day.

Williams has been fighting this new "normal" for seven years, and even won Wimbledon with the disease.

That's how far back she believes she can trace symptoms of Sjogren's, which takes a notoriously long time to diagnose.

It is an autoimmune disease related to lupus. Basically, the immune system goes haywire and attacks the wrong things. White blood cells attack the moisture-producing glands. It can lead to fatigue and joint pain.

Williams will turn 32 in June, and her body is starting to have other problems, too, including hip and muscle ailments. She has played just 12 matches on tour in nearly a year and a half.

"The big push for me is the Olympics this year," Williams said this week at the US Fed Cup victory in Worcester, Mass.

"If I'm healthy, I'm not worried about my ranking (being high enough to qualify). I think I can hit the ball. It's just about my body cooperating. It's about being able to play matches in a row. Right now, I'm not sure how much I can do with that, but we'll see."

Williams had just left the court, where she and Liezel Huber, the No. 1 doubles player in the world, had demolished a team from Belarus. It was Williams' first sanctioned match since the US Open.

Williams played well, moved well, served well. But she played doubles only, not singles.

"It felt great," she said. "It felt good to be able to move the ball. It felt good when Liezel helped me out. It was everything I expected."

Williams still can play at a top level. The question is whether she can do it several days in a row, especially when she doesn't know from one day to the next what her energy level will be.

Williams plans to play a few more years but is having trouble getting onto the court at all. She skipped the Australian Open, the year's first major.

"I'm still fighting fatigue," she said. "I'm getting better. I mean, it just takes a while to kind of find the right medicines that work, to get stronger.

"I mean, some of them take six months to set in, then you just have to find what works best, similar to a lot of stuff. It's definitely a real-life experience, for sure. My life is going to be different, but I'm glad to know what's wrong with me so I can get better."

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