Venus Williams defeats Marion Bartoli in Wimbledon final

WIMBLEDON, England – Improbable as this Wimbledon title might have seemed, Venus Williams knew it could happen.\nFar away as that trophy might have appeared only last week, Williams knew she had the game and the grit to grab it.\nWith a dominant run through the latter rounds, Williams became the lowest-ranked woman to win Wimbledon, beating Marion Bartoli of France 6-4, 6-1 Saturday for her fourth championship at the All England Club.\n“I was really motivated because no one picked me to win. They didn’t even say, ‘She can’t win.’ They weren’t even talking about me,” said Williams, who reached No. 1 in 2002 but entered Wimbledon ranked No. 31. “I never would doubt myself that way.”\nIt was similar to the performance turned in by Williams’ younger sister Serena in January, when she won the Australian Open while ranked 81st. Clearly, rankings mean nothing when it comes to the Williams siblings. Nor does recent form.\nIf they are in a tournament, they can win it.\n“As long as we’re fit,” the 27-year-old Venus Williams said, “we just have so much more to give on the court.”\nBartoli, who hits two-fisted forehands and backhands, learned that lesson quickly.\nShe hadn’t faced Williams anywhere, let alone on grass – where balls skid more than they bounce – and Bartoli quickly discovered it was like nothing she’d ever experienced on a tennis court.\nBy the end, she was flexing her wrists and shaking her hands, trying to alleviate the sting from Williams’ serves at up to 125 mph.\n“I’m not playing against girls every day hitting the balls like this,” Bartoli said. “I mean, it’s not possible to beat her. She’s just too good.”\nAgainst Bartoli, Willams compiled a whopping 27-9 edge in winners and won 13 of the 18 points that lasted at least 10 strokes.\n“I know how to play this surface,” said Williams, the first woman to receive the same paycheck as the men’s champion at the All England Club. “If there’s a surface to pick, grass at Wimbledon’s not a bad choice.”\nRight from the start, Williams took it to Bartoli, going ahead 3-0. But Bartoli, who upset No. 3 Jelena Jankovic in the fourth round and No. 1 Justine Henin in the semifinals, made things interesting by breaking back with the help of a double-fault and two groundstroke errors by Williams.\nAll the while, Bartoli stuck to her routines. Before each of her serves, she would walk to the baseline and hop high once, then bounce a couple of times, something she said relaxes her legs. Before most of Williams’ serves, Bartoli would turn her back to the court and take two big cuts, a forehand and a backhand, like a batter in the on-deck circle.\nAfter 37 minutes, things were even at 4-4. But Williams held at love, then broke to end the first set with a swinging backhand volley.\nThat pretty much ended the competitive portion of the proceedings.\nPerhaps because the sun finally emerged from the clouds and the temperature was suddenly in the 70s, both finalists needed medical timeouts with Williams up 3-0 in the second set.\nBartoli had her left foot treated, while Williams got down on the court to have her left leg worked on. The American played the rest of the way with a thick bandage under her white spandex shorts, which she began wearing in the second round because the skirt she planned to use was too big.\nWilliams played in her 12th Grand Slam final, sixth at the All England Club, and won her sixth major title. Bartoli was in her sixth tournament final and never before had been beyond the fourth round at a major.\n“You walk into that court,” she said, “and you know you’re a part of history.”\nWhen they walked off that court, the one Williams knows so well, they passed the board that lists the past champions. Already stenciled in, below similar entries for 2000, 2001 and 2005, was Williams’ name, next to 2007. Clutching a bouquet of flowers, Williams stared at it, her mouth agape.\nAt about that time, her father was recalling that when Venus was 9, she would talk about how many Wimbledon titles she wanted to win one day.\n“I think she can win three more,” Richard Williams said, “and I would be disappointed if she didn’t.”