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It was a historic afternoon for the Williams family as siblings Venus and Serena went head-to-head for the fourth time on the hallowed grass of Wimbledon. Serena tilted the scales in her favour with a crisp 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over her older sister to postpone Venus' attempt at capturing a sixth crown. The result means that Serena continues to pull ahead of her sister in the Grand Slam stakes with 11 now to Venus' 7, and also gives her claim for a revision of the world ranking system a stronger voice being the proud reigning champion at three majors - the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Venus came into the match as an odds on favourite, despite being seeded one spot lower than Serena. She had raced through the tournament with relative ease, in comparison with Serena who had come within a point of being eliminated by Russian Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals. Venus had not dropped a set at Wimbledon since the 3rd round in 2007.

That streak should have continued in the opening set at the very least as after a series of good opening service games, Venus missed the simplest of forehand passing shots at 30-40 in the 8th game of the opening set.

Serena roared back strongly after that amazing escape to go into the first set tiebreak playing undoubtedly the better tennis. Venus on her part was starting to look jaded, and a forehand winner from Serena enabled the younger sibling to head into the change of ends ahead at 4-2. With winners flying off the Serena racquet, she closed out the opening set with an outstanding lob over the imposing Venus to wrap up the opening set in 52 minutes.

The second set started in identical fashion to the first, with both girls holding serve with ease. However, Venus' fortunes took a turn for the worse in the 6th game of the set as a double fault on her first break point of the match handed Serena a decisive advantage. The younger Williams consolidated the break with ease, and at 5-2 put more pressure on Venus' serve to force a bundle of match points. Venus would save three with some plucky play, but Serena was just too powerful on the deuce court, and kept coming back at Venus. However on the fourth time of asking, Venus netted a backhand as Serena collapsed to her knees in triumph.

Speaking after the match Serena paid due respect to her elder sister, who still has a two Wimbledon lead over her, "It feels so amazing, I'm so blessed. I feel like I shouldn't be holding the trophy, like I'm holding Venus's trophy. It's named for Venus and she always wins, so it hasn't settled in I won yet."

Venus too was gracious in defeat, "Today she was too good, she had an answer for everything. She played the best tennis today so congratulations. I don't think the loss has set in yet because I'm still smiling. I've had so many great times here and of course I'm looking forward to next year and the doubles final later. I love what I do and most of all I love playing these finals."

However a different Serena was to emerge at the post match press conference, fueled by journalists just begging her to take another swipe at the rankings. She said rather sarcastically, "I think Dinara did a great job to get to No. 1. She won Rome and Madrid...I think if you hold three Grand Slam titles maybe you should be No.1, but not on the WTA Tour obviously, so... You know, my motivation is maybe just to win another Grand Slam and stay No.2, I guess. I'd rather definitely be No.2 and hold three Grand Slams in the past year than be No. 1 and not have any."

"I think the girl, Dinara, who is No.1, you can clearly see by her physique how hard she works. You can't get anywhere by not doing the best and not working your hardest. So, you know, I'm happy for her. I'm really excited that I won Wimbledon, though, because, like I said, I'd rather win that than not win the Championships."

File Photograph Copyright: Elizabeth Molineux

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