After nearly two hours of brutal power tennis on Center Court on Saturday Serena Williams punched a backhand into the tramlines to hand older sister Venus her fifth Wimbledon title. The celebrations of 28-year-old Venus were muted. There was no jig of joy or girly giggles that had accompanied her victory here last year against French outsider Marion Bartoli but the contented smile said it all. After losing to 26-year-old Serena in their last five meetings in Grand Slam finals, including the 2002 and 2003 showdowns at Wimbledon, her 7-5, 6-4 victory meant big sister had finally put little sister in her place. A brief embrace at the net was as emotional as it got before Venus set off to parade the Rosewater Dish around a sunlit court. The sisterly words of comfort would have been saved for the privacy of the locker room. Looking out for little sister did not extend to her tennis. A 129mph (208kph) serve, the fastest by a woman at Wimbledon, was proof she was pulling no punches. Serena began the final like a whirlwind, crunching two forehand winners of immense power and a sizzling crosscourt backhand to break serve in the opening game before holding her own serve to love. Venus then slipped 0-30 down in her next service game but rallied to 40-30. The next point allayed any fears that the final would fizzle out into the lame, lop-sided affair witnessed when Serena beat Venus in the 2002 final. With Venus stranded at the net, Serena advanced to drill a ferocious backhand straight at her sister who produced a stunning reflex volley to get on the scoreboard. Venus dug deep to save another break point at 1-3 and then got lucky with a net cord. The sisters were briefly in unity when Venus had a point for 5-4. After Serena called out during a rally the Portuguese umpire Carlos Ramos ordered the point to be replayed, even though that would have disadvantaged Venus. Serena simply walked to her chair and Ramos changed his mind. A poor Serena backhand handed Venus the first set and she never looked like relinquishing her lead. Two match points arrived in the following game. A screaming ace saved one of them but Venus would not be denied her seventh Grand Slam title and a place among Wimbledon's greats. About 3 1/2 hours later the sisters paired up to win their seventh Grand Slam doubles title Saturday, beating Lisa Raymond of the United States and Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2, 6-2. Second seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic defeated Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 to win their first Wimbledon men's doubles title. – Reuters __
