Nope, Venus Williams is not dead (on the date of posting this).
She recently played tennis in Qatar, defeating a tough opponent in Agnieszka Radwanska in three sets during their quarter-final match, before losing in the semi-finals to Victoria Azarenka.
Venus Williams was also interviewed after that semi-final match, and appeared to be in great health - so unless something unexpected happened between now and then, I would say it's safe to assume that Venus Williams is alive and well.
In fact, the 34-year old had this to say about her future chances of rising up the ranks again:
"Definitely I want to be high ranked and I enjoy it, who doesn't? I feel like I'm working hard at it. With time I think it'll come."
