Serena Williams celebrates winning her women’s singles final match against Germany’s Angelique Kerber with the trophy at Wimbledon July 9, 2016. “This makes it all so much sweeter after all the work I have put in to get where I am now”. The two women played against each other in the Australia Open in January, with Kerber taking that win.
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Kerber defeated Serena’s sister Venus in a semifinal match Thursday, depriving the sisters of the opportunity to square off head-to-head for a fifth time in the finals at Wimbledon. Margaret Court holds the all-time record with 24 Grand Slam titles.
Graf set her record with the tenacious Monica Seles constantly on her shoulders. She volleyed well, too, winning the point on 16 of 22 trips to the net, including a tap-in on match point. The elusive 22nd major win came on the heels of Williams’ losing in the finals of the U.S., Australian and French opens – getting oh so close, only to come up with warning-track power at the biggest moments.
The sisters, who paired up again this year after a two-year absence, have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together. “It was getting down to the pressure”.
‘Literally one day when I woke up I felt different. The tennis player was there but Serena as a person was not really herself…
NY was crushing. “I just did a lot of practising, though”.
“I had just enough time to change and get the ankles re-taped”. Yet by Wimbledon, and by Saturday, she had restored her air of invulnerability, even against the all-grown-up Grand Slam mentality of Kerber, and largely because she had the one component that mattered most: her serve. Once I started focusing more on the positives, I realised that I’m pretty good.
But that Roland Garros loss to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza finally snapped her out of the brain fog that had plagued her since last September when her pursuit of the calendar Grand Slam ended with a shock Flushing Meadows defeat by Roberta Vinci.
“It’s been incredibly hard not to think about it”.
There is no longer any space for engraving on the original plate, so it is just as well that the Williams family name had already appeared 11 times. S Williams will be the first name on the additional part of the trophy, and it is hard on current form to imagine that will be the last. “She brought the energy from game one and that brought me up, too”.
She took the first set 7-5. In Melbourne I thought I played well but obviously Kerber played better.
Yet, as she has done so many times in her career, the American slammed down an ace, with the look on Kerber’s face saying a thousand words. “She’s such a great opponent”.
Williams was all smiles as she paraded the Venus Rosewater Dish around Centre Court after collecting a cheque for £2 million (S$3.5 million). The top seed’s reaction showed how important that was. “I had a couple of tries this year”, Williams said during the trophy ceremony on matching Graf’s record.
Serena Williams insisted she was not focused on No. 22.
“This court definitely feels like home”. That’s one thing. The second thing is she’s a bit predictable.
“Serena was serving unbelievable today”.
At one point in the second set, Kerber had a break point, and Williams answered with consecutive aces, clocked at 117 and 124 miles per hour. She slammed 13 aces. Naturally. One wide, 188kmh. Well, Kerber lost despite committing a mere nine unforced errors. But Williams’ serve was untouchable. You can always go to a third (set).
The duo now have 14 Grand Slam doubles titles and three Olympic gold medals as a pair, and have never lost a major doubles final together.
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Now she finally has it. I dont want to let Serena down. “No”, she warned, “not for me”.
