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Venus wound up with more double-faults (three) than aces, and she was broken twice. Serena, meanwhile, saved the only two break points she faced.
Both came while Serena trailed 4-3 in the opening set, serving at 15-40. On the first, Serena hit a 94 mph serve to the backhand side that Venus returned wide. On the second, Serena charged forward, and Venus had a wide-open court, but she pushed a forehand passing try long.
“Went for a little too much,” Venus said.
From deuce, Serena hit two aces, at 105 mph and 116 mph, to pull out the game.
They went to a tiebreaker, and Serena closed it with a lob that curled like a rainbow over her sister and landed in, no easy task when you consider Venus is 6-foot-1.
Serena wheeled around, her back to the court, and quickly celebrated with a pump of a fist, although no yells of “Yes!” or “Come on!” — one, tiny, indication she couldn’t completely banish from her mind the thought that Venus was on the other side of the net. Then Serena walked to the sideline, her left fist clenched and her face blank.
The second set wasn’t nearly as competitive, with Serena breaking to a 4-2 lead when Venus double-faulted. That was part of an eight-point run for Serena, whose only real trouble came when she tried to seal the victory.
She wasted her first three match points, before Venus dropped a backhand into the net on the fourth. Serena closed her eyes, rolled her head back and dropped to her knees.
She lost Wimbledon finals to Maria Sharapova in 2004, and to her sister last year, and really wanted to end her six-year gap without a title from this tournament. Her trophy in tow — it’s called, coincidentally, the Venus Rosewater Dish — Serena went to check out the board that lists Wimbledon’s champions. She ran her fingers over all of those references to “S. Williams” and “V. Williams” in gold type on a green background — eight of the past 10 years, one or the other appears.
“Actually, I felt like my name should have been there at least once more,” she said. “At least I got in another one.”
She almost didn’t. In the semifinals Friday, Serena was one point from losing to No. 4 Elena Dementieva, before coming back. She’s only the second woman in the 41-year Open era to rally from match point down on the way to winning Wimbledon. The other? Venus in 2005.
Serena is making a habit of such escapes. She also saved match points en route to Australian Open championships in 2003 and 2004.
“The match is never over,” Serena noted, “until you shake the opponent’s hand.”
Or, as was the case Saturday, until you hug her.
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