Williams make mockery of rankings

ANA Ivanovic remains world No1 in the new rankings issued this morning by the WTA. Jelena Jankovic has leapfrogged Maria Sharapova into second place, while Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva are Nos 4 and 5 respectively.

The rankings are an accurate reflection of achievements on the tour over the past 12 months, but what they are not is a true picture of the state of women's tennis. That has been increasingly obvious over the past fortnight, and became plain for all to see on Saturday, when the two best players in the world battled it out for the Wimbledon singles title.

Venus and Serena Williams are outside the top five because, with the sole exception of Sharapova, they have played significantly fewer tournaments than their rivals. But when they enter a tournament fit and ready to go, they are still better than the rest by far.

It was Venus, the loser to her sister in the finals of 2002 and 2003, who came out on top on this occasion, winning 7-5, 6-4 to take her fifth Wimbledon crown. Victory for the elder sibling also levelled the score in head-to-head contests between the two at eight wins apiece, a statistic which shows that neither has ever achieved prolonged dominance over the other.

But for their injuries and planned absences, however, the North Americans would certainly have maintained a superiority over the rest of the field in terms of ranking as well as in actual results. Only Sharapova and Amelie Mauresmo have come close to challenging them physically, and then just for short spells: Sharapova has been unable to build on the promise she showed when winning Wimbledon four years ago, while Mauresmo, wracked by a series of crises of confidence, is now on the verge of retirement and was roundly beaten here in the third round by Serena.

It was the younger sister who began Saturday's final looking sharper, taking advantage of Venus's uncertainty about the conditions to break in the opening game. The gusting wind was making serving difficult, and Venus would continue to take longer over hers, frequently aborting the serve after the ball-toss.

Despite making that initial break and then holding serve with ease, Serena was unable to maintain the upper hand for long. She has been the more formidable player of the two when it comes to bludgeoning opponents into submission, but is less mobile and has a shorter reach than her taller and lighter sibling.

The turning point in the first set came when Venus saved a break point, with a little help from the net cord, when she was serving at 3-1 down. That ensured she kept a foothold in the set, and she scrambled right back into contention three games later to break back.

She still had a lot of work to do, and was assisted in the ninth game by Serena's decision to call one of her own shots out and concede the game when the umpire wanted to replay the point. She was unable to break again when Serena served to stay in the set on the first occasion, but at the second time of asking she succeeded.

Anyone who had expected a tame contest, or one which in any way would give strength to the rumours that the match would be fixed, had not a shred of evidence with which to advance their case. Granted, there were some unforced errors, but the conditions played a part in many of them, and it would be odd in any case if a match were to have none. Serena in particular tends to have lapses of concentration, and she would go on to display that tendency in the second set as well, when she broke Venus at the end of a lengthy and enthralling third game only to be broken back cheaply in the next.

The only aspect of the match which appeared slightly fake was the tendency of both women to grunt and groan theatrically. It was almost as if they wanted everyone to be aware of how much effort they were expending, but again, they have long indulged in such theatrical vocalising.

From 2-2 the second set proceeded almost mundanely to 5-4 for Venus, and then Serena chose exactly the wrong time to throw in a bundle of errors. Visibly tightening up, she went 15-40 down, and although she saved the first match point, another unforced error then gave Venus the title.

That new total of five Wimbledon crowns, puts Venus behind only Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in modern times, and according to her own assessment takes her into pretty lofty territory.

"I think winning this tournament so many times definitely puts you into the stratosphere, to be honest, just because of what this tournament means," she said.

Her altitude would have been even more stratospheric but for those two defeats by Serena in their previous finals here. As it is, both sisters already have strong claims to be among the greatest players of all time – and cast-iron claims to be the best of their generation by some way.

Venus targets Navratilova's title record

Eve Fodens

VENUS Williams yesterday revealed she would love to match Martina Navratilova's record of nine Wimbledon titles after her fifth triumph on Centre Court.

Williams defeated younger sister Serena 7-5, 6-4 in Saturday's final, recovering from a break down in each set to successfully defend her title.

The 28-year-old could already have had seven titles, having lost to Serena in the finals of 2002 and 2003, and she is now looking to move up from fourth place in the Wimbledon singles hall of fame in the modern era behind Navratilova (nine), Steffi Graf (seven) and Billie-Jean King (six).

Asked about matching Navratilova, who watched the final on Centre Court, Williams said: "Oh my God. That would be the ultimate. That's not easy. Her career spanned like three decades, so I'm not sure if I have that much time. If I did, I think I would definitely dream of that."

One thing in Williams' favour is the limited schedule she tends to play, either by choice or through injury. Wimbledon was only her eighth tournament of the year – the same as Serena – and she added: "I've had my fair share of downtime, I try to stay as fresh as I can."

An all-Williams final was a common occurrence when the pair first began to dominate; they contested five of the six grand slam finals between the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon in 2003, but that was the last time they had met at such a stage before Saturday.

The feeling persists that the siblings could achieve such dominance again if they were not distracted by their off-court activities, and Venus was at least making all the right noises.

"I would love that," she added. "The main goal for both of us is to stay healthy. We've both worked really hard this year and I think the results showed here, both in the singles and the doubles (which the sisters won for the third time just hours after the singles final)."

Saturday's final was no classic, but it was never likely to be given the sisters know so much about each other's play. Yet thankfully for those who dredged up tired conspiracy theories about the result being decided in advance, it was a true contest filled with thunderous groundstrokes and massive serving.

"I think the level of play was really high," agreed Venus, who fired one serve at 129mph, a Wimbledon record. "

We had some really competitive rallies and intense points where one player would come back and take the point, when it looked like the other player was going to win. We're both very powerful and I think it showed out there."

Her sister was understandably more downcast.

"She lifted the level of her game and I should have lifted mine, but instead I think mine went down," said Serena, "I just lost rhythm and then I made a lot of errors. Nothing I was doing seemed to work."