This was Williams’ seventh singles trophy at the All England Club – only Martina Navratilova, with nine, has more in the Open era – and second in a row.
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Since winning her 21st singles major at Wimbledon last July, Williams admitted she experienced many “sleepless nights” as she had been haunted by the spectre of “number 22”.
On matching Graf’s Grand Slam record, she added: “It’s been incredibly hard not to think about it”.
Williams had come up short at the US Open a year ago, losing in the semi-finals. “It’s going to take a lot of education and a lot of work, I think, to get to that point”.
Before Williams hired him, following a first round loss at the 2012 French Open, she had been going through a lean spell having drawn a blank at the majors for nearly two years.
Recovering emotionally from her defeat to Muguruza last month took time but there was a moment when Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou knew rejuvenation was near.
The top-seeded pair of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert have won the Wimbledon men’s doubles championship by beating Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-3 on Saturday.
The 34-year-old struck 39 winners.
She placed and blasted three first serves – 94 miles per hour, 114, 101 – on which the ball only ticked Kerber’s racket. She faced only one break point – the only one she faced in the last three rounds – in the seventh game of the second set.
There was more that Williams did well, though. She volleyed well, too, winning the point on 16 of 22 trips to the net, including a tap-in on match point. Soon enough, she was wrapping Kerber in a warm embrace, then holding up those fingers to symbolize “22”.
“I was trying everything, but she deserved it today”.
The 28-year-old, who will rise to number two in the world following her run to the final at SW19, is now hoping to reach more Grand Slam finals and she is also looking to add to the maiden success she achieved in Melbourne.
“I was just talking through things, and how I was disappointed that I lost the French, and what I needed to do, to do better at Wimbledon”.
It was breezy, but that didn’t seem to hamper Williams, whose older sister Venus sat in her guest box, a couple of seats over from music’s power couple of Beyonce and Jay Z.
Kerber, a German who knows Graf well, defeated Venus in the semifinals and hadn’t dropped a set until Saturday. But on the grass that suits Williams’ game so well, Kerber simply could not quite keep up with the trophy on the line.
Serena Williams says the recent fatal police shootings of two black men and the attack in Dallas have anxious her.
She was back on Centre Court later with sister Venus to win the doubles championship with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Hungarys Timea Babos and Kazakhstans Yaroslava Shvedova.
Kerber, who gave a great competition to Williams, appreciated the American player and said she deserves the victory.
There is little margin for error when playing Williams, and two consecutive errors from Kerber – a forehand long followed by a backhand wide – handed her opponent two set points on a silver platter.
There had been some thought that Williams was really stung by her loss to Vinci in NY, that it was too big a disappointment to push aside and lingered, somehow, when she followed with the setbacks against Kerber and Muguruza.
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“This ability to win the big matches, that’s what champions are made for and she showed that she was back”. “Oh God, no”, Willams said.
