Sporting Life - Wimbledon 2008

Venus Williams revelled in a 'monumental' achievement after beating sister Serena for her fifth Wimbledon singles title.

The 28-year-old successfully defended her title with a 7-5 6-4 victory on Centre Court, taking her into fourth place in the Wimbledon singles hall of fame in the modern era behind Martina Navratilova with nine wins, Steffi Graf with seven and Billie-Jean King with six.

Venus said: "Five titles, that's the first thing that popped into my head. I can't believe it's five. Five is monumental. I would have been disappointed at not being able to make history.

"I think the level of play was really high. We had some really competitive rallies and intense points. We were both very powerful."

But Venus admitted that even though Serena had won their previous two Wimbledon finals her euphoria was tempered by feelings of disappointmenmt for her sister.

Excited

She said: "I was pretty excited because the match was so close. But I'm more into what my sister is feeling. One of us has to win and one to lose so I'm not that excited because my sister just lost. My first job is as big sister. I take that very seriously."

Putting sisterly feelings aside, however, Venus won for strictly tennis reasons.

She was marginally more precise in a final played in the trickiest of swirling breezes.

She served better and faster, one delivery clocking in at 129mph, a Wimbledon women's record.

Mainly she won because she demonstrated more desire and determination in two sets which were as hard-fought as any in the tournament.

Venus said: "I'm hitting with a lot of pace. I never felt good about my groundstrokes but my serve kept me in there.

"I felt pretty relaxed. When match points came I was a little tight, but that's normal. I think I was a lot more relaxed than her."

And yet it was Serena who made much the better start, breaking the Venus serve in the first game of the match.

The crowd shouted "come on Venus" and the air was punctuated with shrieks of almost murderous intent as both women strained to take the early initiative.

Venus finally managed to claw back the break of serve in the eighth game but it was the final point of Venus' next game which history will record as the pivotal moment of the 2008 final.

During the rally, with Venus holding advantage after four deuces, Serena hit a shot accompanied by a cry of 'No' as she assumed the ball was going out. The ball, in fact, fell in but umpire Carlos Ramos called a 'let,' ruling that Venus had been distracted.

Sporting

After some discussion at the umpire's chair both women sat down with Serena having surrendered the point. A case of sisterly sportsmanship.

Venus explained: "Serena is the ultimate sports person, we both are. We don't take injury time-outs, we don't question balls.

"I was confused what was happening. I had no idea what the call was until the umpire told us."

The momentum, however, was suddenly with Venus as she went on to take the first set, breaking her sister's serve in the 12th game after which Serena slammed down her racquet as if to demonstrate how much she cared.

That desire to express desire was something of a sub-plot in a final interspersed with rallying of huge power and pace which reminded us of what the sisters had done for women's tennis.

The Williams sisters took tennis to an athletic scale which the likes of even the watching King and Navratilova could barely have contemplated.

The third game of the second set was a typical example, going to seven deuces before Venus' serve was broken when she fell with the effort of trying to reach one wide groundstroke and Serena made the winner in the open court.

Venus needed to step on the aggression once more and she duly did so, breaking back in the next game and finally shattering the resolve of her younger sister in the 10th game when Serena's backhand down the line drifted out to give Venus the title.

Venus raised her arm to her mother Oracene in the player's box, but the celebrations were always on the composed side of euphoric, as they always seem to be when Williams takes on Williams.

Serena said: "I lost rhythm, made a lot of errors, nothing I was trying was working. My balls just started flying and she was serving well.

"I don't think I played well. She's won five Wimbledons and beaten me on grass now. Her tactic was to serve every ball into my body and I will know next time what to expect."

With Serena just 26 and Venus two years older, given health, fitness and desire there could be many more times.