Ladies' Champion ©Getty Images / A. Livesey

In many respects, this has been the Championships of surprises. It was unexpected that Venus Williams and Marion Bartoli would be the two women to walk on to Centre Court for the ladies' final – before the tournament neither was heavily fancied to progress into the latter stages. It was also surprising that, after all the unsettled weather that has plagued this year’s event, the Ladies’ Singles Final would begin bang on schedule at the traditional time of 2pm on the second Saturday of the Fortnight.

The good time-keeping was in part due to Roger Federer who dispatched Richard Gasquet in only 100 minutes in the earlier match on Centre Court. Meanwhile, on No.1 Court, the other men’s semi ended abruptly moments later when Novak Djokovic retired due to injury.

The final was therefore held without any major distractions elsewhere at the All England Club, with Venus and Marion holding centre stage in a match bathed in glorious sunshine. Although the American has only won one tour title since she last won Wimbledon in 2005, as soon as she walks on to the grass of the All England Club, she is a different proposition.

Despite a brave performance by Bartoli in her first grand slam final, Williams demonstrated why she is one of the finest female grass court players in the history of tennis, beating the 18th seeded Frenchwoman, 6-4, 6-1.

With this win, Venus becomes only the fourth woman in the open era to be crowned ladies' champion four times. Only Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Billie Jean King have won more titles at Wimbledon since prize money was introduced in 1968.

Notably, Venus is the first female Wimbledon champion to be rewarded with exactly the same prize money for winning the ladies’ singles as her male counterpart. The identity of this year’s men’s champion will be determined on Sunday when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will face off again in a re-match of last year’s final.

Federer’s 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 win over 12th seed Richard Gasquet kept alive the Swiss player’s dream of being the first since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win five consecutive men’s titles. But first he will have to overcome Rafael Nadal, who booked his place in the final after Novak Djokovic was forced to retire after 101 minutes because of an infected blister. When the match ended, the score at one set each and Nadal leading 4-1 in the third.

Elsewhere, defending doubles champions Bob and Mike Bryan had a straight-sets win over Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic in the men’s doubles semi-final. They will face Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in Sunday’s final. Meanwhile, Ai Sugiyama and Katarina Srebotnik will face Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the final of the Ladies’ Doubles.

British hopes of their first home-grown champion in a main draw event in 20 years were kept alive in the Mixed Doubles after Scot Jamie Murray and Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic knocked out Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva in three sets. They will play in the final on Sunday.

Written by David Bates

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