Venus’ Win Is a Long Time Coming

The bucolic grounds where Venus Williams first found credibility as a champion five years ago turned into a place of validation, and ultimately redemption Saturday.

Transformation didn’t come easily or quickly. She won her second Wimbledon title a year after her first, but it would be four years before the third, and Williams needed 2 hours 45 minutes of sustained drama to defeat Lindsay Davenport, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 9-7, in the longest women’s final at Wimbledon.

It took that long to decide between two irresistible comeback stories. Two tales of past woes, littered with injuries, but room for only one happy ending. At one point, all that was left was the final exclamation point for Davenport, who reached match point in the 10th game of the third set.

Davenport managed to get to that stage despite needing treatment for a tight back in the third set and failing to hold when she served for the match at 6-5 in the second.

Down match point, Williams wiped out one potential ending with a gutsy backhand winner. Twenty-eight minutes later, Williams reached the chance to write her own finish ... and promptly double-faulted on her first match point, in the 16th game of the third. About a minute later, she got the ending just right, winning on match point No. 2 when Davenport netted a forehand.

Victory brought almost a delayed reaction from Williams. But she more than made up for the brief hesitation after sharing a hug and handshake with Davenport at the net. Williams jumped up and down about eight times, looking like a school kid who was jumping rope.

“I just was so excited,” Williams said. “I can’t help myself. When I get excited, I just show it all.”

Said her mother, Oracene Price: “When she won in the semifinals, she didn’t know she had won. That’s when she jumped. It was kind of like the same thing [today].

“I just feel satisfied because finally the hard work is coming back and paid off for her. It’s been a long time coming for her.”

It was one of the finest women’s finals at Wimbledon, filled with hard-hitting, often-exhausting baseline rallies. The last time a player came back after saving match point in the women’s final at Wimbledon was Helen Wills Moody in 1935 against Helen Jacobs.

Even in losing, Davenport could appreciate the quality of Saturday’s match.

“It was great and it was exhilarating,” she said. “I felt like I played great. I felt like I did everything I wanted to do out there, and I felt like I got really close and just didn’t win the one or two points that would have won the match for me.

“But I don’t really feel like sitting here that I have to hang my head or be ashamed.... She just took it away from me every time I got up.”

All this and more led to Williams’ exuberant celebration. This was her first Grand Slam title since the 2001 U.S. Open and she had not been in a Slam final since Wimbledon in 2003.

She was written off in many quarters, especially after this year’s French Open, when she lost in the third round, and she said in the interview room Saturday: “I felt a lot of negativity all the time in here.”

Respect didn’t come from Wimbledon officials, either. Despite having won Wimbledon in 2000 and 2001 and reaching the finals two more times, she was seeded 14th, which made her the lowest seeded woman in the Open era to win Wimbledon.

Nevertheless, Williams found her old form, looking sharp against Mary Pierce in the quarterfinals, and stellar against defending champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinals. The top-seeded Davenport, who was trying to win her first Slam since the 2000 Australian Open, also had an especially difficult draw, starting with Kim Clijsters in the fourth round.

Davenport, 29, who weighed retirement at this time last year, was playing her best tennis in some time and forced Williams to lift her game several levels.

In the first set, Williams did not look like the player who had dismantled Sharapova in the semifinals. Gradually, she worked her way into it, winning nine consecutive points near the end of the first set even though Davenport managed to hold on to the set.

Williams had difficulties on her serve, double-faulting 10 times. But she came up with the big serves when necessary. Her best game to break serve came when Davenport was serving for the match at 6-5 in the second. She promptly broke Davenport at love with a tenacious showing, hitting a forehand volley and smacking two backhand winners.

Davenport would rue her lost opportunities in the third. She led 4-2, 40-15 on her own serve and was broken, needing attention from the trainer after that game, briefly leaving the court.

“She was incredible,” Davenport said. “Whenever I felt like I was just about to shut the door completely, it was like, ‘Oops, let’s open that back up.’ ”

Davenport, four years older than Williams, seemed to be the sentimental favorite with the crowd, perhaps sensing this might be her best, and last big chance at a major. Even Williams had a sense of the occasion, noting how close Davenport had come against Serena Williams in the Australian Open final in January.

“I wanted Serena to win in Australia, but [Davenport] came so close there and obviously here just a point away or a millimeter away,” Williams told a small group of reporters hours after the final. “You just have to root for her. If it wasn’t me or Serena out there, I’d want Lindsay to win.”

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Men’s final

Today’s singles final at Wimbledon (6 a.m., Channel 4):

* Who: No. 1 Roger Federer, Switzerland, vs. No. 2 Andy Roddick.

* Head to head: Federer leads, 8-1.

* Last year at Wimbledon: Federer defeated Roddick in the final, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-4.