Number five was what mattered most says Venus

LONDON (Reuters) - Champion Venus Williams was excited by the significance of winning her fifth Wimbledon title on Saturday and allowed herself to dream she might one day equal Martina Navratilova's record of nine.

"Oh, my God, it's five. Wow...That was the first thing that popped into my head," she said of the moment she beat younger sister Serena in the Centre Court final for her seventh grand slam title.

"Winning this tournament so many times puts you in the stratosphere," Venus said after joining a select band of players, including Navratilova and Steffi Graf, who have won at least five titles at the All England Club.

"Had I had this achievement at any other tournament, it would have been awesome, but it's not really the same as winning at Wimbledon because of the prestige of this event," she said.

Asked about trying to emulate Navratilova, she said with a gasp: "The would be the ultimate. That's not easy.

"Also, her career spanned like three decades so I'm not sure I have that much time," said the 28-year-old, who won her previous titles in 2000, 2001, 2005 and last year.

But she added: "If I did I would definitely dream of that."

She said she would have been happy for twice champion Serena if the younger Williams had beaten her and won her third Wimbledon title on Saturday.

"I would have been more disappointed about the number. Last year I thought four was incredible but five is really monumental.

"I would have been more disappointed about not being able to make history than actually not winning the match."

SISTER SYMPATHY

Venus said it was exciting to win a match as close as Saturday's but the feeling was tempered by the knowledge that her sister had lost.

"I'm definitely more in tune with my sister's feelings because one of us has to win and one has to lose. Of course, the celebration isn't as exciting because my sister has just lost," she said.

"You could never detract from winning a Wimbledon, so of course it doesn't detract from that, but I'm definitely thinking about how my sister's feeling."

Serena is the only person to have beaten Venus in a Wimbledon final, in 2002 and 2003.

Venus said the sisters, who tucked their previous six meetings in grand slam finals into a narrow band between the 2001 U.S. Open and 2003 Wimbledon, could be at the start of another period of dominance.

"We would love that... we've both worked really hard this year and I think the results showed here.

"So the goal is to stay healthy so that way we can play singles and doubles and have a lot of fun with it."

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)