Venus targets Martina milestone

8:40pm Sunday 6th July 2008

Venus Williams has revealed she would love to match Martina Navratilova's record of nine Wimbledon titles after her fifth triumph on Centre Court.

Williams defeated younger sister Serena 7-5 6-4 in Saturday's final, recovering from a break down in each set to successfully defend her title.

Asked about matching Navratilova, who watched the final on Centre Court, Williams said: "Oh my God. That would be the ultimate. That's not easy. Her career spanned like three decades, so I'm not sure if I have that much time. If I did, I think I would definitely dream of that."

She added: "Tennis is so much different now. Tennis is a big business now, all the tournaments, the players. The pressures are different."

One thing in Williams' favour is the limited schedule she tends to play, either by choice or through injury.

Wimbledon was only her eighth tournament of the year - the same as Serena - and she added: "I've had my fair share of downtime, I try to stay as fresh as I can."

An all-Williams final was a common occurrence when the pair first began to dominate; they contested five of the six grand slam finals between the 2002 French Open and Wimbledon in 2003, but that was the last time until Saturday they had met at such a stage.

The feeling persists that the siblings could achieve such dominance again if they were not distracted by their off-court activities, and Venus was at least making all the right noises.

"I would love that," she added.

"The main goal for both of us is to stay healthy. We've both worked really hard this year and I think the results showed here, both in the singles and the doubles (which the sisters won for the third time just hours after the singles final)."

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