The name of Venus Williams adorned the famous Wimbledon rosewater dish for the third time after a dramatic and record-breaking women's singles final.

Williams completed a 4-6, 7-6, 9-7 victory over fellow-American Lindsay Davenport in the longest-ever Wimbledon women's singles final which lasted a gripping two hours and 45 minutes.

It enabled her to become only the third woman in Wimbledon history to win a singles final from match point down.

But while the achievement of Williams in winning her first Grand Slam for four years from the inauspicious seeding of 14 deserves the highest accolade spare a thought for Davenport.

The girl who has been plagued by injury over the past five years and who toyed with announcing her retirement at Wimbledon last year appeared to have the final won when she led 4-2 in the final set, only to be struck down with a back injury which required a medical time-out.

She battled on courageously although in obvious pain, even earning a second match point in the tenth game, but eventually Williams ground her down to take the title.

And at the end the Williams joy, after what has been a nightmare two years of injury and the murder of her sister, simply washed over Centre Court.

She threw her arms in the air, looked up at dad Richard who snapped the moment for posterity and then bunnyhopped around Centre Court, giggling like a schoolgirl seemingly in disbelief.

"You never know what life is going to throw at you," said Williams. "Each and every day I just expect the sun to come up.

"Lindsay played so well.

There were so many times when I was just trying to stay in the match. I couldn't ask to play a better player to bring my level up."

The truth, however, is that this was the final wrenched cruelly from Davenport almost at the point of victory.

For the rest of her life she will be haunted by thoughts of what might have been if only she had closed it out when she served for the match at the end of the second set or if her fragile body had not let her down once more in the third.

The ups and downs, however, made for a truly compelling final despite a disappointing first hour which had none of the spark and edge of the semi-final when Williams performed supremely to beat Maria Sharapova in a hugely combative grunting match.

But then the Williams sisters have always been a bit like the nursery rhyme. When they are good they are very, very good. When they are bad they can be truly horrid.

For the best part of two sets Williams was the latter.

Both women had gone some distance since winning their last Grand Slam, Davenport taking the Australian Open in 2000 while Williams won the US Open of 2001.

But it was Williams who was most affected by the tension.

Her serve was flimsy and groundstrokes erratic and she gifted Davenport the first break with two double faults in the third game.

Another break came Davenport's way in the seventh game, Williams spraying groundstrokes long and wide and while Williams threw in a sequence of nine straight points it was not good enough to save the set.

At that point this women's final was little short of an anti-climax for the crowd who earlier had been enthralled by a gripping men's semi-final between Andy Roddick and Thomas Johansson.

But it is dangerous to judge a women's match on one set alone.

And the temperature began to rise as the second set developed, the feistiest moment of the match coming in the ninth game when a first serve from Williams appeared to land six inches wide, but there was no call from the line judge.

Davenport looked aghast. She dropped her racket to the ground and appealed to umpire Gerry Armstrong.

"It was not even close and you don't have the guts to overrule the machine," she said. "You have to try harder than this."

Impressively, she put the outburst behind her and after breaking the Williams serve in the 11th game served for the match.

What a time for the Williams game to explode into action, winning the Davenport serve to love and going on to dominate the tie-break with a brilliant series of groundstrokes.

And so to the final set with the tension rising and play at last approaching final calibre.

It looked like going Davenport's way when she broke the Williams serve in the sixth game but then came the back problems and a break back by Williams and the medical time-out. Still Davenport battled on courageously and could have won it when she was gifted a match point via a Williams double fault in the tenth game.

She could not take it and as her movement became ever more suspect Williams finally found the superior strength and consistency to finish it off.

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 straightsets 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."

"I couldn't have hoped for a better career," said Williams, who has now won five Grand Slams, including her two US Opens.

Her beaming smile said this was the sweetest of all.