Venus Williams is back in the world's top 10 and determined to stay where she feels she belongs.

The 25-year-old Williams claimed her third Wimbledon title, courtesy of Saturday's epic victory over fellow American Lindsay Davenport, to signal her return to the big time.

Williams, world number one in February 2002, had dropped to 16th after a couple of years plagued by injury and loss of form and entered Wimbledon a lowly 14th seed.

But she made a mockery of the rankings with her semi-final defeat of defending champion Maria Sharapova and, after toppling the world number one 4-6 7-6 9-7 in the longest - and arguably greatest - women's final in Wimbledon history, is expected to rise to eighth place when the new rankings are released on Monday.

"I knew my ranking would improve," she said. "I'm very happy to be back there, it's where I feel I belong. My destiny is to win big titles and lots of them."

Williams, who had lost in each of her previous five Grand Slam finals, went into the annals of Wimbledon history with her extraordinary victory over an ailing Davenport, who had served for the match in the second set before being struck by a lower back strain.

Williams became the first women's champion for 70 years to survive a match point and, when the match finally ended after two hours and 45 minutes, it had exceeded the previous longest final, Margaret Court's win over Billie Jean King 35 years earlier.

And Williams revealed she had been inspired by the words of tennis legend King during a rain break in the first week of Wimbledon.

"She said to enjoy the moment. That's what I tried to do out on the court, just enjoy it," Williams said. "I can't say I did that the whole time but that's how I tried to think of it."

It was little wonder that Williams' famous victory, at the scene of her first Grand Slam triumph in 2000, was greeted with delirious celebration.

"I think in my first Grand Slam final I jumped as high and then I calmed down but today I just couldn't calm down, I was so excited," she said.

Watched by mother and father, Oracene and Richard, Williams restored the Venus Rosewater dish to the Williams household after younger sister Serena had relinquished the title to Sharapova 12 months earlier.

Meanwhile, Davenport, who refused to blame her back injury for the defeat, has not given up hope of recapturing the title she won in 1999 with a straight-sets victory over Steffi Graf.

The 29-year-old Californian was on the brink of retirement after losing to Sharapova in the semi-finals a year ago but this time held back from making any bold pronouncements.

"I've learned I have no idea," she said. "It's a long way off but I hope to be back. I've improved on a semi-final so maybe next year I can improve on this."