Queen Serena sweeps past King

Serena Williams swatted away the feeble challenge of Vera Zvonareva to claim her fourth Wimbledon women's singles title on Centre Court and further enhance her status among the all-time greats.

As fellow champions with 28 All England Club singles titles between them looked on from the Royal Box, Williams sought out the admiring gaze of Billie Jean King, whose total of 12 grand slam crowns she had just surpassed.

"I got you, Billie," a grinning Williams said into the on-court microphone, and such has been Williams' dominance over the past she might well have looked across to Martina Navratilova and added: "I'm coming for you too."

Navratilova's tally of 18 titles, shared with Chris Evert, is next on Williams' hit list and few would bet against her securing it. Perhaps one day even Steffi Graf's mark of 22 will come under threat.

"Of course she's beatable," insisted a defiant Zvonareva, after a 6-3 6-2 humiliation in an hour and seven minutes, which seemed to have been designed to prove anything but. "She's a human being. She's not a machine."

If not quite super-human, where grass-court tennis is concerned Williams exists in a different orbit to her rivals. Her fourth title provided another masterclass in the power and precision which swept her through another fortnight barely breaking sweat.

"It means a lot because it's 13 and it's cool that I was able to pass Billie," said Williams afterwards. "I'm happy to have got this far and who'd have thought it? It just takes a dream and a little work and effort."

The bad news for Williams' rivals is she believes she can get better still.

"I honestly didn't think I was playing my best," she said. "I felt my strokes were off, especially in the first week.

"I'm just really happy to have got through it. I'm totally human and I just feel like it's not easy to go out there, especially when everyone expects you to win. It's pretty difficult."