Venus Williams wins her fifth Wimbledon title

Venus Williams strike out younger sister Serena to maintain her fifth Wimbledon crown in exciting manner on Saturday.

The defending champion recovered from a rapid start to land her seventh Grand Slam title courtesy of a 7-5, 6-4 win. Venus rewarded praise to the performance of Serena, who had looked as if she might blow up her big sister off court in the opening games.

The quality of the meeting drove out a idea that the two siblings were unable or unwilling to make their best tennis against each other.

But Venus admitted she never found it easy to take on Serena, who comfortably won their previous Wimbledon finals, in 2002 and 2003. Serena, who had won five of her previous six Grand Slam finals against her sister, admitted things had not gone as she expected.

Venus was sticking on and her firmness paid off when Serena's level finally dipped suitably for her to level things with a break for 4-4. The first game of the second set saw Venus fired down a serve at 129 mph, a Wimbledon record.

Yet it appeared Serena might have regained the initiative when she converted her seventh break point in a 14-minute third game of the second set.

But Venus strike back right away to level. The games then went with serve until, with Serena serving at 4-5, Venus ran down a drop shot and sent a backhand down the line to claim two match points.

Serena produced a world-class to put away the first one but a long convention on the second ended with her pushing a backhand inches wide to hand her sister the title.