Serena Williams Beats Sister Venus to Claim Her Wimbledon Crown

Serena Williams added strength to her contention that she is the true world No1 when she regained the Wimbledon title after an interval of six years by beating Venus Williams 7–6, 6–2 in a final of explosive, noisy power-hitting which should have quashed any lingering questions as to how completely the sisters compete against each other.

Although Serena has partially retracted her opinion about the rankings, she launched another barb at the system: "I think if you hold three grand slam titles, you should be world No1, but not with the WTA Tour obviously."

"Dinara [Safina] is No1. She did a great job – she won Rome and Madrid," Serena added with mischievous irony, joining in with the general laughter which followed her remark.

But when asked if the ranking system needed tweaking, Serena tried to emphasis that she was happy for Safina and respected her fitness. "Honestly, I'm not picking on anybody. I don't know what to do to be No1 – I'm just happy to be here."

Either way, it was again evident that Serena regained much of the appetite and focus she lost during the years which followed her knee operation and her sister Yetunde's death.

Serena served better than Venus, and looked stronger in self-belief during a final which hinged on the first set tie-break and changed character at 2–2 in the second set, after which Venus's standard fell away.

"I feel I shouldn't be holding the trophy. It's named after Venus and she always wins it," said the new champion, joining in the joke about renaming it the Serena Rosewater dish.

But there was no doubt about Serena's desire to win it. She had shown great resilience and courage to save a match point against Elena Dementieva in the semi-finals and now showed hints of similar resolve while saving two break points in the eighth game and taking early command in the tie-break.

She made the two mini-breaks with thumping forehand drives – which, she said "had gone to Hawaii" in the semi-final, and which now returned – and in the second set she was solidly aggressive throughout.

Venus by contrast began having trouble with her service toss during breezy moments, and the double fault she delivered in the sixth game of the second set brought the first break of serve of the match and signaled the beginning of the end.

Venus started her next service game with a double fault as well, and although she fought hard to save two match points, she could not stem the tide which was running against her. When she lost that service game too, Serena celebrated by sinking to the ground, smiling at the heavens and holding her face.

Although father Richard Williams had said earlier in the tournament that Venus's strapped knee had been giving her problems, the five-times Wimbledon champion refused to make it an excuse. "I have no complaints about that," she said. "Serena was just so good."