By Douglas Robson

Venus Williams became the lowest-ranked player to win the women's singles at Wim-bledon when she defeated Marion Bartoli for the title on Saturday.                 © Alex Livesey/Getty Images

“I was really in that zone,” said Venus, whose handcuffing, 124-mph serve into the body of her overmatched opponent allowed her to clutch the gold and silver tray again, this time close to her chest with giddy abandon. “No one was going to beat me.”

Ranked No. 31 and seeded No. 23, the American became the lowest-ranked player to win the title in Wimbledon history. Who had the previous lowest-ranked champion been? Venus herself, two years ago.

Added to her earlier triumphs in 2000-01, the wins put her in an elite group of players who have won four or more titles in the Open era –Martina Navratilova (9 total), Steffi Graf (7), and Billie Jean King (4).

Venus singled out King in her on-court victory speech for her pioneering work in gender equality, which helped make this Wimbledon the first to award equal prize money to men and women.

“I wouldn't be out here without her,” said Venus of King, who watched from the Royal Box.

Like two years ago, when she won Wimbledon in an epic battle over Lindsay Davenport, Venus came into Wimbledon a dark horse at best.

She had opened the season on the disabled list with an injured left wrist. When she rejoined the circuit in February, she won a Tier III event in Memphis but had done little of note since, including a third-round exit at last month's French Open.

Nothing about her first two rounds suggested anything had changed. The former No. 1 needed three sets against No. 59 Alla Kudryavtseva in the opening round here and came within two points of losing in the third round to 71st-ranked Akiko Morigami.

Stealing a chapter from younger sister Serena, who entered January's Australian Open ranked No. 81 before storming to the title, Venus then blasted into a different orbit.

From the fourth round on, the 27-year-old Florida resident lost an average of five games per match in pummeling No. 2 Maria Sharapova, No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 6 Ana Ivanovic and finally Bartoli.

“This win, it's so much different from the others because the other ones I felt like I was playing in championship form from minute one,” said Venus, who only keeps one trophy by her bedside - the 2005 Wimbledon dish.

“That's as good as I've ever seen Venus play,” said BBC commentator and 1977 Wimbledon champion Virginia Wade.

Marion Bartoli achieved her best-ever Grand  Slam result by reaching the final, but was bitterly disappointed not to win one more match.                  © Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Under warm, sunny skies, the six-time major champion Venus broke Bartoli in the second game when she double faulted, but gave it back with three errors and a double fault of her own to even the first set at 3-3.

Bartoli, who had never advanced beyond the fourth round of a major, doubled faulted again at 4-5 to set up two set points. Venus converted the second with a crushing swinging backhand volley.

Venus was in control from then on, pressuring Bartoli with her body-blow serving and corner-to-corner speed. She hit one ace to go with 15 unreturnable serves.

Both players received medical timeouts at 3-0 in the second set – Bartoli to have her left foot retaped and Venus so her left thigh could be bandaged. During the 11-minute delay, Bartoli, 22, joined doing the wave by raising her arms in unison.

It merely delayed Venus' march towards another unlikely Grand Slam title, as she broke again to take a 5-1 lead before closing out the match in an hour and a half.

“I can't say a player can beat her when she play like this on grass,” said Bartoli, noting that Venus' bone-jarring serves hurt her writs returning serve. “It's not possible to beat her.”

Later, Venus said she had picked Wimbledon as the tournament she wanted to win most as a child. Now that she'd won it four times, the aptness of the trophy's moniker was not lost on her.

“I love that,” she said. “Meant to be.”