Seed No.23 Venus Williams of the USA defeated seed No. 18 Marion Bartoli of France 6-4 6-1 in the final on Saturday. It was a decisive win for Venus, who should be congratulated on her amazing comeback. With this victory the 27-year-old American became the fourth four-time winner of Wimbledon in the open era, joining Billie-Jean King, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.

Being ranked only 31st in the world Venus Williams defeated 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova on Wednesday, 2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova on Thursday and French Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic on Friday. Read more »

World No. 11 Martina Hingis will play two warm-up events before the US Open, final Grand Slam of the year.

The first hard-court tournament she’ll play will be the $1,340,000 Acura Classic in San Diego which starts on July 30th. Hingis reached the quarterfinals here last year and won the event in 1997 and 1999.

Martina will then take one week off and after that short break she’ll play another Tier I event, this time Rogers Cup presented by American Express in Toronto. This event switches each year between Toronto and Montreal and last year Martina reached the final where she lost to impressive Ana Ivanovic. Martina won this event in 1998, 1999, and 2000.

After these US Open tune-ups Hingis will take another week off to prepare for the Grand Slam she won in 1997. Last year Hingis was not successful at the hard-courts of the US Open losing to Virginie Razzano in the second round. (via martinaworld)

Ana Ivanovic gave an interview to BBC Sport reporter Phil Jones while giving him a tour of some of the player areas at Wimbledon.

In the interview Ana tells what she thinks about all the attention her beauty attracts, she explains how and why she started playing tennis, etc. Also, you can see the shot of the now famous swimming pool in Belgrade Ana used to train in (BTW, kids in Serbia still practice there!).

Italy, the defending champion, hosts France in the Fed Cup semifinals on July 14 and 15.

I was listening to Severine Bremond’s interview in which she talks about her expectations for the Fed Cup and compares France’s first round tie in Japan to the upcoming one in Italy.

The Frenchwoman mentions that women in the French team get along very well and points out how their team consists of really good players. World No. 37 says that Italy will be a tough opponent, since France lost to Italy the last time they faced each other.

Bremond emphasizes how she loves playing for her country, and says that the team will give their best.

See also: Italy leave out Flavia Pennetta for Fed Cup, France omit Marion Bartoli

In the Fed Cup semi-final Italy and France will face each other at Castellaneta Marina on July 14 and 15 (surface: clay – outdoors).

Corrado Barazzutti, captain of the defending champions Italy, chose Tathiana Garbin, Mara Santangelo, Francesca Schiavone and Roberta Vinci for the team. There will be no Flavia Pennetta since she lost to Marion Bartoli in the first round of Wimbledon.

On the other hand, Marion Bartoli won’t represent France in the Fed Cup since the captain Georges Goven turned down her request to be accompanied by her father and coach. French team consists of Amelie Mauresmo (who lost her Wimbledon crown falling to Nicole Vaidisova on Tuesday), Tatiana Golovin, Nathalie Dechy and Severine Bremond.

BTW: The Italians have had a worse Wimbledon in the singles than the Frenchwomen, with Santangelo losing to Mauresmo in the third round while Vinci, Garbin and Schiavone were all dumped out in the second round. (source: Reuters)