Maria Sharapova became Wimbledon ladies' singles champion on Saturday with an incredible straight-sets victory over defending champion Serena Williams.

The 6-1 6-4 victory saw the 17-year-old become the youngest women's champion since Martina Hingis in 1997 - and the first Russian ever to lift the Venus Rosewater Bowl on Centre Court.

Williams was simply out-hit, out-manoeuvred, out-thought and eventually outplayed by the willowy 6ft blonde and number 13 seed who has single-handedly injected panache and excitement to a women's game which was in danger of expiring from lack of interest.

Sharapova's victory was a fairytale ending to a grim story of struggle and self-sacrifice from her family.

Just how much it meant was all too apparent as the new champion rushed into the crowd to celebrate with her father Yuri - and attempted to telephone her mother in America

"I switched on the phone but it kept switching off," said an ecstatic Sharapova.

"I owe my mom and dad so much. Me and my dad have been though this together all through my career. Playing is a lot easier, believe me. I owe him so much."

And Williams was as magnanimous in defeat as she had been committed throughout the tournament.

"It was not my day," she said. "Maria played a really good match.

"Of course I'll be back. I love Wimbledon."

The match was preceded on Centre Court by defending men's champion Roger Federer wrapping up semi-final victory over Sebastien Grosjean.

Grosjean, the 10th seed, trailed by two sets and was a break down when play was halted last night but he broke back to take the third set into a tie-break and was 4-0 up before Federer showed his champion qualities to wrap up the straights-set triumph.

The other men's semi-final developed into a thriller on court number one, with Tim Henman's conqueror Mario Ancic finally going out in four sets to second seed Andy Roddick.

Roddick recovered from losing the second set when play resumed on Saturday to record a 6-4 4-6 7-5 7-5 semi-final win over the unseeded Croatian.

"He was certainly making it tough for me so it's a lot of relief, I'm so happy to be playing a Wimbledon final," said Roddick, who lost to Federer in last year's semi-finals.

"I never dreamt I'd be playing professional tennis never mind being one of the top players and playing Grand Slam finals."

Wimbledon legend Martina Navratilova missed the chance to break the Wimbledon record of 20 titles after failing to reach the women's doubles final.

The 47-year-old Navratilova equalled Billie Jean King's mark last year when she won the mixed doubles title with India's Leander Paes.

But on Saturday she and fellow American Lisa Raymond were beaten 7-6 (7/4) 7-5 in the semi-finals of the women's doubles by Liezel Huber of South Africa and Japan's Ai Sugiyama.

The Americans raced into a 3-0 lead but Navratilova, who was ranked the best women's doubles player in the world from 1981-83, twice dropped her serve to let her opponents back in the set.

Navratilova and Raymond were a break down in the second set when rain forced a 35-minute delay and, although they got it back on serve, Navratilova produced a double fault on match point to concede the match and with it her chance to create history.