Venus moves into golden orbit

"Time to pick up the pens and pencils," Venus Williams said, "and to put down the racket. It's back to college for me. I don't want them calling to ask where I am, like they had to last year."

She seemed not at all put out by the idea of a return to her studies, despite having just come off the Homebush court after beating Elena Dementieva of Russia by a very comfortable 6-2, 6-4 to win the Olympic gold medal in the women's singles.

Added to Wimbledon and the US Open, this made it three big tournament victories in a row for the 20-year-old American, who has not lost a match since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario beat her in a quarter-final of the French Open at the beginning of June. Counting all her tournaments, she is now on a streak of 32 matches without defeat.

"This means a lot to me," she said, fingering her medal, just in case anyone had assumed that a beribboned bauble without prize-money attached could be of little value to one of the millionaire goddesses of the professional tennis tour.

"I wanted to come here because I'd be playing for my country. It only comes around every four years and you never know, this might be the one moment in time for me. I worked hard for it and now I'm tired. Actually I've been feeling tired for a while but this is the first time I've admitted it to you guys."

In truth she was nowhere near her sharpest against the 18-year-old Muscovite, who gave Lindsay Davenport a good run in the semi-finals of the US Open earlier this month but never looked like threatening Williams's run of success yesterday. Dementieva's impressive forehand alone assures her of a good future in the game but the inconsistency of her two-fisted backhand gave Williams free points time and again.

Tall and slender, with a blonde ponytail and thoughtful blue eyes, Dementieva looks as though she might have been forced, at some time in the not too distant past, to make a choice between tennis and the Bolshoi. Entirely without visible mannerisms, she was dressed from top to toe in traditional white, which suggested that Nike are packaging her as a kind of anti-Kournikova in the war against Adidas. (Russia's favourite sports bra model turned down the chance to represent her country in Sydney but must have regretted it when she switched on the television and saw the beach volleyball.)

Dementieva was in need of a greater range of weaponry yesterday, however. Williams broke her unintimidating serve in the third and sixth games of the opening set, but the first eight games of the second set featured seven breaks of serve before Williams stepped up the intensity, started hitting rather than stroking her shots and put the match away after a mere 57 minutes of play. One of the highlights of the closing passage was a first serve from Williams that whistled past Dementieva and through a ground-level TV camera window at an indicated 177 kilometres per hour. Hospital bulletins are awaited on the condition of the crew.

If it was not exactly Olympian tennis, with few rallies and many unforced errors, it could nevertheless be added to the pile of evidence that Williams has raised her game this year. Dementieva agreed, comparing yesterday's experience with their only previous meeting, at the Fed Cup a year ago, when the Russian won in three sets. "One year ago she only had a good serve and some shots," Dementieva said. "Now she's doing everything."

She was unwilling, however, to admit that Williams has overtaken her own idol, Martina Hingis. "I think Venus is stronger," she said, "but Hingis plays much better than her." Dementieva's English is not much better than serviceable, so her thoughts may not have been as graceless as her words.

A few minutes later Williams herself addressed the phenomenon of her own improvement. "It just seems that on the important points I've been able to come up with something, one way or another," she observed. "It's not like the other players are giving me these wins. It's a great time. Good results. And I've worked for it."

She spoke of adopting a new attitude to her game. "I've been ready to go out and take it and not just hope that somebody would give it to me. I guess I've graduated to a different level, where I can be with some of the greats."

Well, her latest title certainly puts her in exalted company. Of the 12 times the women's singles has been held at the Olympic Games, it has been won on five occasions by some of Wimbledon's greatest multiple champions. Charlotte Cooper, winner of the first gold medal in 1900, also took five All England singles titles. Dorothea Lambert Chambers, the winner in 1908, won seven. Suzanne Lenglen, the 1920 champion, had six. Helen Wills, whose gold medal came in 1924, had eight. Steffi Graf, who won the first gold medal after tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988, had seven. And from the way she has played in recent months, you would not bet against Venus Williams joining them.

Was there any player she still feared? "I don't have any fear. I fear myself the most. Sometimes I can get a little crazy and make a lot of mistakes."

She declined the opportunity to criticise the top US men who had declined the chance of Olympic medals. "Everyone has to make their own decisions. Pete [Sampras] has been playing with injuries. Andre [Agassi] had issues of his own to take care of. They made the right decisions for themselves."

Her own gold medal will be framed, she said, perhaps surrounded by the collection of pins she has amassed over the last couple of weeks. "That will make a nice reminder of Sydney." But she added that a gold medal in Thursday's women's doubles final would mean even more to her than the singles medal - "because it would be with Serena, and that's family."