Venus Williams struggled to come to terms with her achievement after beating sister Serena in straight sets to win her fifth Wimbledon title.

"It's monumental," she said.

"Winning this title puts you in the stratosphere, because of the prestige."

Venus, 28, added it would be a "dream" to surpass Martina Navratilova's all-time record of nine titles.

"That would be the ultimate," she said. "It is not easy - her career spanned three decades and I'm not sure if I have that much time. Tennis is so much different now."

Venus had lost both of the sisters' previous meetings in Wimbledon finals, in 2003 and 2003, but her greater composure at key points made the difference on Saturday.

"I felt pretty relaxed out there. It was only when the match points came that I was a little tight," she said.

"I was maybe a little bit more relaxed than her."

The quality of the contest was all the more impressive given the blustery conditions on Centre Court.

"It was windy and it kept blowing and swirling and changing direction. It was tough," said Venus.

"The level of play was really high. A lot of times one was overpowering the other. We had some really competitive rallies, some intense points where it looked like one of us would win the point, then it swung the other way.

"We're both proud of what we showed out there."

For Serena, it was her first loss to Venus in a Grand Slam final since the 2001 US Open and she said losing to her sister was no consolation.

"It's definitely not any easier. I look at her as another opponent at the end of the day," said the 26-year-old.

Serena had a 4-2 lead in the first set before losing it 7-5, and also led by a break in the second before succumbing in one hour and 51 minutes.

"I just lost rhythm at the end of the first set and made a lot of errors," explained Serena.

"I didn't feel tight but I couldn't get the balls in and nothing I was doing seemed to work."

(BBC)

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