Forget the wins, forget the losses, forget the struggles. When Venus Williams steps onto the manicured lawns of the All England Club, everything changes.
The 28-year-old American, who won her fifth Wimbledon singles title Saturday, just seems able to release that special something in herself at the key moments. And she's done it time and time again.
"When I get here I feel like it's a different ball game, no matter what my results were, good or bad, in the beginning," Williams said Sunday in an interview with two reporters at the All England Club. "This is Wimbledon. No matter what, I'm going to play good here. That's really how I felt about it."
Williams entered the tournament with a 14-7 record in 2008 and not a single appearance in a final, but she excelled over the last two weeks, rolling through six matches in straight sets before coming up against younger sister Serena in the final. And despite a 1-5 record against her sibling in previous Grand Slam finals, Venus won her second straight Wimbledon title 7-5, 6-4 on Centre Court.
Her next challenge will be trying _ again _ to maintain the momentum heading into the U.S. Open.
"I definitely want to build on this and keep playing great," Venus said. "That's always the goal. Doesn't always happen."
Venus has won seven Grand Slam titles, the last three coming the past four years at Wimbledon. But from 2001-03, it looked as if she would win dozens, playing her sister in six major tournament finals but losing five of them.
The Williams' dominance on the circuit ended after the death of their older half-sister, Yetunde Price, in September 2003.
"There were times when I just felt very discouraged about some of my results, but ultimately the standard that I set for myself is extremely high," Venus said. "The results that I didn't like were great results for other players. I just had to put everything in perspective and come through those times."
She certainly has come through at Wimbledon, and she wouldn't trade a single Venus Rosewater dish for a title at either the Australian Open or French Open, two majors she has never won.
"People remember Wimbledon," Venus said. "The French Open and the Australian, they're unbelievable Slams, but they can get a little lost on the wayside. Wimbledon will never get lost."
Her next challenge at the All England Club will be trying to match Billie Jean King's six titles, then Steffi Graf's seven, and then Martina Navratilova's nine _ the most won at Wimbledon since the 1930s.
"Wow, I don't even think about that. That's not really in my thought process," Venus said. "They were amazing. They had unbelievable achievements. I'm thrilled with my own achievements."
Her own resume now includes a second win over Serena in a major final after five straight losses. Surely, their years of playing together and against each other gave Venus an idea of what she needed to do to win Saturday.
"I didn't really have a game plan," Venus said. "Going in I was hoping to try to move the ball around. That didn't quite work. I ended up hitting a lot of balls at her."
A few hours after that match ended, the sisters joined up to win the doubles title, beating Lisa Raymond of the United States and Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2, 6-2 for their seventh Grand Slam title as a team.
"We really want the doubles title. It's huge, it's Wimbledon," Venus said. "Two years from now we'll see that it was another notch in our Grand Slam belts."
The way the sisters are playing again, despite heading into Wimbledon with Serena ranked only No. 6 in the world and Venus one spot behind, they will get another chance to revive the rivalry in New York at the U.S. Open, and even before that at the Olympics _ where Venus won the singles title and she and Serena won the doubles title eight years ago in Sydney.
"I love the Olympics," said Venus, who is expected to play singles and doubles in Beijing. "To add to my medals, it would be amazing."
