Serena Williams remains No. 2 in women's tennis

To the computer, which does seem to love the Mediterranean as does everyone else, Rome and Madrid matter. Safina's titles there raked her 800 and 1,000 points, respectively, while Serena's first-match exits afforded her one point and five points. In fact, given the computer's 12-month brain, Safina's lead will widen after Wimbledon, because she improved from the third round to the semifinals here while Serena improved from finalist to champion.

"I would go crazy just thinking about it" if she tended to think about it, Serena said. "I think anyone really could. That's just shocking. But whatever. It is what it is. I'd rather definitely be No. 2 and hold three Grand Slams in the past year than be No. 1 and not have any."

Safina has none, but she does have five semifinal-or-final berths in the last six majors, including a French Open final that very well might have included Serena had she weathered her taut 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-5 quarterfinal against eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

"I should have won the French Open, or at least I should have had a chance," Serena reiterated Saturday, but the reality places her at a Serena Near-Slam at 27, six years after her Serena Slam at 21. Beginning with Wimbledon 2008, she has gone 31-2 in the majors, a surge she said gained propulsion from the 7-5, 6-4 loss to Venus in the Wimbledon final that left Serena brooding.

Before she could claim her third Wimbledon title and her 11th Grand Slam singles title, one behind Billie Jean King in seventh place, though, she walked out to Centre Court with her sister together for the fourth time as they carried purple bouquets on another banner Williams day, and she walked out in underdog mode.

Venus had won two straight titles, 20 consecutive Wimbledon matches, 34 consecutive sets. "Actually," Serena said, "this is one of the few times I didn't expect to come out with the win today."

As she played without burden, her game grew more airtight than in her riveting, two-hour 49-minute semifinal with Elena Dementieva, during which she stared down a match point. Her unforced errors wound up at a paltry 12 to her sister's 18, her serve shone with 12 aces to her sister's two, and her winners totaled 25 to her sister's 14.

Venus' game, meanwhile, dipped from its marvel through the fortnight such that witnesses wondered if her bandaged left knee bothered her, while she refused to stoop to that, saying, "Everybody has something they're dealing with."