"Once you win here it's pretty addictive," said Venus Williams yesterday after she shredded the game of number three seed Lindsay Davenport to earn herself a second successive Wimbledon final.

The win puts Williams in the same breath as Steffi Graf who was the last player to win back-to-back titles in 1995-1996. For Davenport the match was one of discouragement as she failed to come top grips with Williams' elevated game of heavy serving in tandem with the misfiring of a normally reliable backhand.

Williams grasped the contest in the first set 6-1, had one of her typical wobbles, which she has suffered periodically throughout the two weeks to lose the second set on a tiebreak, before hitting a perfect 6-1 third for the match.

"It seems as if I shot myself in the foot by making a few errors and let it all kind of die right in the beginning of the third," said Davenport.

Shrewdly observed as usual. But at that stage the 25-year-old 1999 winner had stepped up her game. Having saved a match point on serve at 4-5 down in the second set Davenport whistled through the tiebreak, winning it 7-1 - Williams double faulting for the set.

Rather than derailing her the lapse was a spur to Williams. Breaking Davenport twice she raced to a 3-0 lead. Although Davenport replied with a service break, Williams was overwhelming and hit at least one serve within two mph of her world record of 127 mph.

"When it comes to the larger matches I'm just able to raise the level of my game to a really high degree," said Williams.

Two more breaks and her own ferocious service game put her in a position to equal Althea Gibson's record set in 1957-'58. Gibson is the only black female player to hold two championship titles.

"Justine's a very good player," said Williams. "Everyone wants to get to the finals these days. Everyone wants to win. So really you have to watch out for every player. For me it wasn't really surprising (Henin in the final)."