Dylan Martinez / Reuters

Venus Williams celebrates with the trophy after winning the women's final match against Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon.

updated 3:21 a.m. ET July 3, 2005

WIMBLEDON, England - Venus Williams leaned against the wall behind the baseline for several seconds, gasping for air. At the other end of the court, Lindsay Davenport doubled over, using her racket like a cane to rest a bothersome back.

Williams had just hit a forehand to win a 25-shot exchange in the third set, the longest point in the longest Wimbledon women’s final on record, and neither she nor Davenport looked particularly eager to resume play.

They did, of course, and 10 minutes later, Williams’ stamina and strokes allowed her to complete a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 9-7 victory over Davenport on Saturday for her third Wimbledon championship and first Grand Slam title in nearly four years.

Barely, just barely, better than the top-ranked Davenport on a cloudy afternoon, Williams pulled off two impressive comebacks all at once:

She’s the first woman in 70 years to win at the All England Club after facing a match point in the final, and she returned to the top of the tennis world after two years of personal and professional setbacks.

Once No. 1 in the rankings, then just No. 2 in her family, Williams had won only one tournament in the last 13 months and tumbled in the rankings. At No. 14, she is Wimbledon’s lowest-seeded women’s champion.

“It has special meaning,” Williams said. “I wasn’t supposed to win.”

She hadn’t been past the quarterfinals at a major since losing the 2003 Wimbledon final to younger sister Serena while struggling with a torn abdominal muscle. That was just part of a long line of injuries and losses, difficulties that were easy to deal with compared to the shooting death of half-sister Yetunde in September 2003.

“It’s been a tough two years,” said Williams’ mother, Oracene Price. “It’s been a long time coming for her.”

FREE VIDEO What a Slam Venus Williams talks about winning her first major title since 2001 at Wimbledon

Davenport’s been waiting 5½ years since her last major title, and she looked poised to end that drought Saturday. She won the first set — the only one Williams lost this fortnight — and served for the championship after breaking for a 6-5 lead in the second. But Williams would not go quietly, dialing up the volume of her grunts and the power of her groundstrokes to break at love for 6-6.

“I just spent so much time behind that the only time I think I was in front was when I won the match,” said Williams, who had lost her past five Grand Slam finals, all to her sister. “I guess somehow I stayed in there.”

Did she ever.

Little sis might be the one with the nascent acting career, but it was the elder Williams who combined with Davenport to script a 2-hour, 45-minute drama worthy of London’s West End. It’s a lot to live up to for Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, who meet Sunday in a rematch of the 2004 men’s final.

Roddick’s shirt, shorts and arms were covered in dirt and grass stains from dives and tumbles Saturday as he completed a 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (10), 7-6 (5) semifinal victory over Thomas Johansson. The match was suspended because of rain in the first set Friday, when Federer easily beat Lleyton Hewitt, and resumed at noon Saturday.

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