Wimbledon 2009: Serena Williams beats sister Venus in women’s singles final

The writers of the Wimbledon history books can down their pens until tomorrow’s men’s final after Serena William caused upset on Centre Court this afternoon by winning her third singles title against sister Venus.

The elder of the two was set to become only the third player in the Open era to win three back to back titles at SW19, but a straight set 7-6, 6-2 defeat saw the momentous moment disappear and her little sister holding the Rosewater Dish.

Serena, who had come up against tougher battles than her sister to reach the final – saving a match point against Elena Dementieva in their final four tie – looked the stronger of the two all afternoon in what was the siblings’ eighth grand slam meeting and 21st overall with a 10-10 record before today's match.

Excelling on her serve Serena hit three aces in her opening four service games and her superiority on court gave her the first set – the first Venus has dropped since her third round win over Akiko Morigami here in 2007.

It was a closely fought battle with both Williams’ holding serve before the elder of the two was broken in a tiebreak.

The second set was a different story. Venus looked unsettled and Serena capitalised. The 27-year-old only dropped two points in her first three service games and took the first break of the match in the sixth game which saw a struggling Venus hit her third double fault of the afternoon.

With her tally of aces hitting 12, Serena’s faultless serve saw her storm to a 5-2 lead and she was on match point after just one hour and 24 minutes. Not going down without a fight, Venus saved three match points before sending a forehand long of the baseline to give her sister the trophy.

Admitting she had been outplayed, Venus said: “Today she had an answer for everything; she played the best tennis today so congratulations. I’ve had so many great times here, I love what I do and I love playing these finals so see you next year.”

Serena meanwhile said: “It feels so amazing, I feel like I shouldn’t be holding the trophy she always wins it. It hasn’t settled in that I won yet. I am honoured and feel blessed to be out here.”