Venus Williams triumphed over 18th seed Marion Bartoli on Saturday to win her fourth Wimbledon singles title, 6-4 6-1.
Bartoli, who had never before been beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam, started nervously, conceding her opening service game through a double fault.
The French woman recovered and fought hard for the rest of the set, breaking Williams back to level the scores, but she was eventually overcome at 4-5 to give Venus the first set of the match.
Williams continued to pile on the pressure at the start of the second set and broke Bartoli again to win the opening game.
Despite needing treatment on a thigh problem at 3-0, Williams continued to play very aggressively, breaking again at 4-1 and then serving out for the match after only one and a half hours on court.
At the start of the tournament Henin, Serena, Mauresmo and Sharapova were the favourites to go all the way, but none of them made it to the final.
Ranked only 23rd in the competition, Venus had suffered a difficult season, hampered by a wrist injury, and was considered by most not to be in contention for the Wimbledon title this year.
"Venus came out of nowhere." Commented a surprised BBC analyst, Martina Navratilova "It's amazing how much she can pick it up during the tournament."
"It's so exciting," Said Venus talking to the press after the match, "It's been a long road and I've had some tough losses but I brought it together here."
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