WIMBLEDON, England -- Sister Slam III was a TV hit.

Serena Williams' victory over older sister Venus in the Wimbledon final Saturday drew ratings 28 percent higher than the broadcast of last year's title match.

The overnight rating for NBC's show Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET was 4.6.

In 2001, when Venus beat Justine Henin on Sunday for her second straight championship, the rating was 3.6.

The all-Williams final represented a turnaround for this year's tournament, which had been averaging overnight ratings about 25 percent lower than in 2001.

It tied the 1999 final between between Lindsay Davenport and Steffi Graf as the top rating for a women's Wimbledon final since 1995. That year, Graf vs. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario drew a 5.3.

NBC's broadcast deal ends this year, and the network is in talks to renew it. NBC has aired Wimbledon for 34 years.

The first of three all-Williams major finals, in prime time at the U.S. Open in September, drew a 6.8 preliminary national rating on CBS, outdrawing a top-20 college football game between Nebraska and Notre Dame.

Each rating point represents 1 percent of U.S. TV homes. Overnight ratings measure the 53 largest TV markets in the United States, covering about 65 percent of the country.