Williams stared at the service line and saw the end of the line. When her nervy second serve strayed long, Lindsay Davenport had a long-awaited championship point in the 10th game of the last set of the longest women’s Wimbledon final in history.
Grass courts always seem to bring out the variety in Venus’ game, but dialing it down is seldom part of the plan. Stepping inside the baseline, Williams went for it, smacking a backhand winner down the line to erase Davenport's chance and ignite a comeback. In a match of crackling exchanges, the 14th-seeded Venus out-dueled the top-seeded Davenport to capture her third career Wimbledon title in a record-setting, two-hour and 45-minute thriller. Venus celebrated by bouncing up and down with joy, turning Centre Court into a tennis trampoline.
"My motto is I’m alive, so as long as I’m alive I can do anything," Venus said.
Seeded 14th, Venus eclipsed 13th-seeded 2004 champion Maria Sharapova as the lowest-seeded woman to win Wimbledon. The video highlights remind how cleanly Davenport struck the ball, her ability to dictate off serve and return, and her willingness to drive shots deep down the middle to try to tie up the long-limbed American up before changing direction.
The stress spiked with Williams serving at 4-6, 4-4, 15-0 when her first serve, which replay shows clearly landed wide, was called good. Chair umpire Gerry Armstrong failed to over-rule, and an exasperated Davenport declared: “It’s not even close and you don’t have the guts to over-rule the machine and you see it out? You have to try harder than this.”
Aside from that exchange, it was all business. Neither woman was willing to back up; both tried to play first-strike tennis. Watching makes me wish they had played doubles together. Still wearing Reebok gear, Venus, who always seems to hit her forehand with more clarity on grass, drilled some tremendous running drives in the final stages. A Venus forehand down the line sealed the second-set breaker to force a decider.
A baseline tug of war ended in gut-wrenching defeat for Davenport, who was agonizingly close to winning her first Grand Slam championship since the 2000 Australian Open. Instead, she suffered her fourth consecutive loss in a major final. It marked the second time in a six-month span that she held a one-set lead over a Williams sister in a Grand Slam final, only to succumb.
“It's tough to try to put it into words right now,” said Davenport. "Obviously, I’m very disappointed. I felt I gave everything I had out there, but when the chips were down Venus played unbelievable.”
Venus’ comeback victory marked the fifth time in a six-year span that one of the Williams sisters raised the Venus Rosewater Dish. A year earlier, the Russian revolution was the Grand Slam story: Three of the four majors were won by Russian women, and the Williams sisters were written off by some as disinterested, part-time players. In 2005, Australian Open champion Serena and Wimbledon winner Venus restored family order in combining to collect two of the three Slams.
This was an explosive climax to a superb and spirited rivalry: Williams won this 27th and final meeting between the pair, with Davenport holding a 14-13 edge in a series that featured 12 finals. Venus lifted her level of play when it mattered most in winning their two other Grand Slam title matches, both in 2000 at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
No. 5: Evert d. Goolagong, 1976
No. 4: Ivanisevic d. Rafter, 2001
No. 3: Williams d. Davenport, 2005
No. 2: Borg d. McEnroe, 1980
No. 1: Nadal d. Federer, 2008
