Venus Williams extended her winning streak to 26 matches.

Somewhere in the depths of that self-examination, Williams decided to be the best.

She won her first Grand Slam singles title this year at Wimbledon. On Saturday night at the National Tennis Center, she won her second -- the U.S. Open. Williams lost four of the match's first five games, but came back to thoroughly unhinge Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 7-5.

Williams, who won $800,000, took the sterling trophy from sister Serena, who was the defending champion.

The record will show Martina Hingis is the ranked as the world's No. 1 player, but there is no question who is the best. No. 3 Williams defeated both Hingis and Davenport, the only two women ranked ahead of her. And over a span of more than three months, Venus has now won 26 consecutive matches and five titles. Her two Grand Slams this year constitute half of four available and are viewed as the most prestigious.

"She's definitely the No. 1 player right now," Davenport said. "You just have to say, 'That's too good.' You just have to congratulate her and go back to work on your game."

By a wide consensus, Williams has not yet mastered the many subtleties of the game. When she reached her first Grand Slam final -- the 1997 U.S. Open -- she was admittedly clueless. Now, one wonders if there are limits to what she can accomplish. Is she the best?

"Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah," Williams said. "I've always felt like the best player. It's about an attitude you take into the game. Now, I just go out and take it instead of hoping somebody's going to give it to me with their mistakes."

That attitude is refreshingly childlike. Williams, who says she doesn't read the newspapers or watch television, doesn't know much about the ongoing presidential campaign. After the Olympics, she'll curtail her tennis schedule and go back to school. She said there were times in the second set that she didn't know the score of the match.

"I had to ask the umpire," Williams said. "It didn't feel like the U.S. Open final. It felt like I was just playing a game."

A game with which we are all unfamiliar.

Davenport had Williams' number at one point. She beat Venus in eight of their first nine matches going back to 1997 -- Williams' first full year on the professional tour.

Since then, Williams has owned Davenport, winning five of six matches, including three finals this year -- Wimbledon, Stanford and, now, the U.S. Open, all straight-set victories. It was the first all-American-born women's final here in more than two decades.

With Williams, it is always a battle of winners versus unforced errors. Even in a successful match like Williams' three-set victory over Hingis in the semifinals, winners tend to run only slightly ahead of unforced errors, 51-47. The thing that distinguishes Williams is that the results -- good, bad or ugly -- rarely temper her hyper-aggressive approach.

Against Davenport, Williams had 26 winners, balanced perfectly by 26 unforced errors. There were eight aces, offset by seven double-faults. She offered a generously giddy 15 break points, but allowed only three conversions.

At times, it was difficult to watch as Davenport came unraveled. She was attempting to become the first person to defeat both Williams's sisters in a Grand Slam tournament after thumping Serena in the quarterfinals.

It was, as advertised, a clash of titans from the baseline. Davenport (6-foot-2½, 175 pounds) and Williams (6-1, 160) locked up in a thwock-thwock-thwock, one-one-on-one struggle. It was Williams, surprisingly, who blinked first after an unsettling 90-minute rain delay.

After Davenport dodged a break-point in her first service game, she broke Williams in the third and fifth games. Davenport consistently throttled Williams' 70-80-mph second serve and went for winners.

In the fifth game, Williams fought off three break points, but on the fourth Davenport ripped a huge forehand down the line -- on the line, in fact.

And then Davenport seemed to get nervous.

After winning four straight games, she lost four straight. Her massive first serve almost completely deserted her. Williams broke her twice -- the second came when Williams' deep forehand forced Davenport to spray a backhand long. When Williams held serve, it was 5-4. Davenport never had a chance in the 10th game. At 15-30, she missed four straight serves and gave Williams the set.

Davenport rallied to break Williams in the second set's third game, but Williams broke back in the fourth. Williams fell into a familiar pattern -- she would lose concentration and fall into a serious hole, but somehow manage to dig her way out. She saved four break points in the fifth game and closed the deal with an ace. In the 11th game, Williams fought off two more breakers before the decisive 12th game.

Here, in a nutshell, is what Davenport -- and all of women's tennis for the foreseeable future -- was up against:

With Davenport serving at 30-all to force a tie-breaker at 5-6, she hit a killer serve that might have been an ace against a mortal player. Then Davenport hit a cross-court forehand Williams somehow tracked down. Davenport tried the other side of the court, but Williams retrieved that as well. Three terrific would-be winners and nothing to show for it. Davenport, clearly dismayed, then sent a forehand into the net, giving Williams the match.

"Somebody like Arantxa [Sanchez-Vicario], you know she's going to get those balls back," Davenport said. "But Venus runs it down and hits it hard back. It's tough to put balls away against her. You obviously have to go for more on your shots."

Obviously.