No. 31 Venus Williams lands in final

It became official Friday that Wimbledon’s effect on Venus Williams qualifies as recuperative if not downright medicinal.

Shortly after one last Ana Ivanovic backhand crossed the court and plopped down just wide and just as Williams seemed to set world records for elation as she looked toward her parents in triumph, the statistics made clear that a woman born in Lynwood, raised in Compton and living in Florida derives singular strength from the soil of England.

“I’ve had so many great times here,” she said.

It’s not just that the 6-2, 6-4 win over the nervous 19-year-old Serbian booked Williams’ sixth Wimbledon final in the last eight years. It’s not so much that she has three titles and figures to take a fourth against the startling French finalist Marion Bartoli, who toppled No. 1 Justine Henin, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1.

It’s that at No. 31 in the world, Williams just became the lowest-ranked Wimbledon finalist since they started making rankings in 1975, and that this breaks the lowest-ranked-finalist record set in 2005 by ... Venus Williams, who that year became the lowest-ranked champion at No. 16.

So, the spiteful other 50 weeks of the year gut Williams’ ranking and impair her seeding, and then the fortnight provides potion.

“We just take Wimbledon so seriously, Serena and I do,” Venus said. “We urge ourselves along. We’d see Pete Sampras winning. We just have our traditions here that we do when we get here. We just love this tournament. We understand what it means. So somehow we just pull it out of the bag here.”

She pulled it out of the bag gradually. She trailed 1-3 in the third set of the first round before prevailing 7-5. She trailed 3-5 in the third set of the third round just after pushing a second serve long, allowing Akiko Morigami to serve for the match.

“Yeah, I just went into another gear,” Williams said. “I just hit it hard.”

She broke Morigami’s serve at love and has lost only 17 games in six unbeaten sets since, routing No. 2 Maria Sharapova on Wednesday, outhitting No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday and outclassing Ivanovic, the French Open finalist with the expanding future.

Rummaging around and finding her big game, of course, entailed rummaging around and finding her big first serve. She rocketed in 74% against Sharapova, 66% against Kuznetsova, and 19 of 23 in the first set against Ivanovic, 74% for the match.

“[At] the end of the day, I lost to a great champion,” Ivanovic said of a champion who in 2005 and 2007 has discovered one of the weird little secrets of sports: It might just be more exhilarating to win unexpectedly than to win from the No. 1 spot.

Williams knew this in 2005, when she arrived at Wimbledon ranked No. 16 and seeded No. 14, but won. Then her kid sister Serena knew it 5 1/2 months ago in Melbourne, when she entered the Australian Open ranked No. 81, but won.

“I was like, I want to be just like her,” Venus said, and so she has become, on a daydream run more fun than No. 1.

“Yeah, definitely, definitely” more fun, said the seasoned soul of 27. “Because I’ve been counted out so many times. And it’s OK with me. I’ve been unlucky with injuries. That happens. But I think I’ve had a little spell now where I felt good. I’ve had a chance to get ready.

“It’s all coming together.”