Venus in Motion©PA / S. Parson Saturday, 7 July, 2007
Venus Williams and the Venus Rosewater Dish were reunited on Centre Court today when the 27-year-old collected her fourth Championship with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over France's Marion Bartoli that was harder earned than the score would indicate.Never before in Wimbledon's modern era had the women's final been contested by players so lowly-ranked. Williams, ranked 31 after an injury-hit year of little activity, was awarded the 23rd seeding on the strength of her previous record here, while Bartoli was seeded 18th.Williams collected £700,000 for her one hour and 30 minutes victory, the first year of equal pay for men and women at Wimbledon, but her delight at the end showed that the money meant little to this millionairess whose prospects of another title here had been largely discounted.
Venus had proved, and how, that she is still a grand slam contender, despite having arrived at Wimbledon with just seven tournaments this year and one victory, at Memphis in February.The 22-year-old Bartoli's high moment had come in the semi-finals on Friday evening, when her rocketing ground strokes pole-axed the world number one and top seed, Justine Henin. Today those were less effective because of Venus's longer reach and speed around the court.The way the Centre Court crowd got behind Bartoli was clear indication that they feared a one-sided contest. That this did not happen was due to a combination of Bartoli's dogged determination to give no ground to such famous opposition and to the fact that Venus had one of her less accurate days.She certainly started impressively enough, breaking Bartoli in the second game thanks to a double-fault from the Frenchwoman.
That was elevated to 3-0 before the fightback began, although Venus had a point for a 4-0 lead (on another double-fault).Then Bartoli settled, buoyed by the crowd's support, stretching Williams from side to side with her flat, raking groundstrokes from her double-fisted grip.She broke Williams when Venus sent a wild forehand sailing over the baseline and then levelled the match at 3-3, courtesy of two more poor Williams backhands. Could this become another thriller, like the Henin match?As it turned out, no.
Bartoli, gallantly though she played, always looked the inferior performer against such classy opposition and when her fifth double-fault of the match presented Venus with two set points Bartoli was able to fight off only one of them before Williams stroked away a sweet backhand volley. The set had lasted 45 minutes.The second set followed a similar course, with Williams breaking serve in the second game and going 3-0 up, at which Bartoli took time out for treatment to her left foot. Williams then also asked for treatment to her left leg, leading to a stoppage in all of 11 minutes.When play resumed, Bartoli won the first game to love but that was effectively the end of her resistance. Venus sailed through the next three games, ending with a thunderous serve.Bartoli, clearly delighted with having reached this stage of the tournament, congratulated Williams, calling her "the best player on grass in the world." Today she proved that.
Written by Ronald Atkin
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