Williams: Title defence was tough
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Venus Williams is ready to be tagged the wicked witch of Wimbledon and insists: "I don't care if the crowd don't want me to win."

The 6ft 1ins California colossus unfurled all her awesome Amazonian power to blast Justine Henin 6-1 3-6 6-0 and retain her Centre Court title.

And Williams made it clear she believes she can keep the crown for as long as she wants to.

But she knows that won't please the fans who, having winced at the latest downfall of Tim Henman little more than an hour earlier, turned Hen-mania into almost Henin-mania, so blatantly-biased was the popular support for the plucky and talented Belgian in the women's singles final that followed.

The sense of public outrage when Williams won a spate of points on net-cords was almost tangible and there was a brief outbreak of booing when the champion moved into a 4-1 first set lead with the aid of at least two debatable line-calls.

And in distinct contrast to the cheers of admiration that greeted Williams' leaping war-dance after beating Lindsay Davenport in last year's final shoot-out, the reception for the completion of her 2001 odyssey was decidedly mooted.

Sensing the mood, Williams kept the celebrations low-key and even her normally flamboyant father-coach-manager Richard restricted himself to a brief wave of his ever-present long-lensed camera which has been recording the exploits of Venus and sister Serena for most of the fortnight.

The champion said afterwards: "For sure I knew the crowd wanted her (Henin) to win. I guess they wanted to see the unexpected happen, but for me it is not an issue.

"I've had some experiences like that but it is not important to me. Even if the crowd is not on my side I still have to win for me.

"I still have to hit the ball. They can't do it physically for me.

"Who knows, maybe there will be a day when they root for me. But I don't function that way, where I have to have approval."

The vast majority of the Centre Court crowd might well have wanted to see Venus eclipsed - and fail to become the first champion to successfully defend the Wimbledon title since Steffi Graf in 1996.

But the fans had better get used to Williams the star in ascendance. There's no doubt she has the ferocious serve and brilliant all-round grass-court game to reign at the All England Club as long as seven-times men's winner Pete Sampras.

Even Henin, only 19 and destined for major high-profile in the coming years, could not find sufficient resource or resolve to repeat her outstanding semi-final comeback against Jennifer Capriati once Williams moved up several gears again after dropping the second set.

Henin, dwarfed in physical stature once more by a giant American opponent, delighted the fans including Prince Philippe of Belgium and several of her countries' dignitaries in the Royal Box, by flashing her rapier-like backhand to take the second set with a single break of serve after being grilled in the first when Williams lost only four points off her own delivery.

Williams also threw in a few unforced errors but once the third set started after a brief rain-delay in the decider, Venus truly did look to be from another planet, banging down her big first serve with relentless 115mph accuracy.

It took her just 20 minutes to win it to love and Henin admitted: "She was just too strong and experienced for me."

The 5ft 6ins Henin, who beat Williams in two sets in their only previous meeting three months ago on German clay, continued: "I've always said that size is not everything and I still believe that is true, but Venus has the game to come back here and win it a lot.

"Her serve was unbelievable all match. It was so fast and had a lot of precision as well. I was under pressure all the time.

"But I've had an unbelievable two weeks and I'll be coming back to Wimbledon many, many times."

Williams, now winner of three of the last five Grand Slam events, only goes as far as promising she'll be back at Wimbledon next year.

Anything could happen with this unpredictable 21-year-old who insists she still feels like "a kid" and is not desperately keen to grow up.

This was only her ninth tournament of the year, having taken a month off after her shock early exit from the French Championships and there is a feeling among many American tennis-observers that she'll quit the game well before her late 20s.

She admitted: "Is tennis a passion for me? I don't know about that. I just know that I'm good at it. And, yes, I will be working harder at it for the next year."

And she seemed barely concerned by the apparent injustice that even her third major title win in two years does not lift her back to the top of the world rankings where Martina Hingis remains despite having failed to win a Grand Slam for nearly three years.

She said: "I'm number one of the day and that's good enough. Winning this year at Wimbledon meant even more to me than it did last year."

And Williams has the potential dominance to climb into the list of multi-winners like Martina Navratilova (9), Helen Wills-Moody (8). Steffi Graf (7) and, certainly, Little Mo Connolly and Chris Evert the Wimbledon darlings who won it three times each.

The only question is whether she wants it badly enough.