Venus Williams is still wearing really short dresses at Grand Slams

The length of Venus Williams' hemline is inversely proportional to the tennis star's age: as she gets older, the dresses get shorter.

Sporting her most mini-tennis dress yet, the seven-time Grand Slam champion opened play at the 2011 Australian Open on Monday, winning decisively in straight sets. The quick 6-3, 6-2 victory over Sara Errani was especially nice because it allowed us to focus on the most important part of the match; that short blue dress.

[Photos: Venus Williams' most controversial outfits]

Though not as campy as her can-can number from last spring nor as flashy as the dress she wore in New York at the U.S. Open, the new self-designed garment sets a new mark in tininess. Even when pulled down all the way, it still barely came down to her thighs:

And, to think, if not for a last-minute change by Venus, the dress may have even been more revealing. After the match Williams told reporters she almost wore skin-colored (or nude) shorts underneath rather than black (like she did at last year's French Open):

Q. Just on your outfit today, is that one of your designs? Can you tell us a little bit about that?

VENUS WILLIAMS: Yeah, uhm, the design, it really was an Illusion dress, the illusion when I wear the nude shorts under. But at the last minute I decided not to.

Q. Why was that?

VENUS WILLIAMS: I just decided to wear the black ones. But, you know, it's just about focusing on the dress and not anything else. I mean, I had black shorts under.

But normally like it's all about the dress because it has a mesh and a satin kind of material. Of course, it's all sports gear, and it's all about that zipper, too. A lot of the focus of the dress is the zipper.

[Details: Venus explains wardrobe choices]

I can guarantee that if Venus had worn the nude shorts underneath that dress, the focus would have been on everything but the dress glorified tank top.

[Photos: Best (and worst) dressed tennis stars]

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