“It feels so good, it’s been a little while”, Williams said after the trophy presentation, her sixth championship at Wimbledon, but first since 2012.
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After her 6-4, 6-4 Wimbledon victory over Garbine Muguruza Saturday, Serena Williams is a US Open title away from becoming the fourth woman to complete a calendar Grand Slam, having already won the Australian and French Opens earlier in 2015. Martina Hingis won the singles at the age of 16 back in 1997 and has retired twice since then, but she’s now back as a doubles specialist and was appearing, alongside partner Sania Mirza, in her first final at SW19 since 1998. The ace with which she began it was testament to that – although her rhythm was still off at times, leading to a few embarrassing double faults. “I honestly wouldn’t have thought past year after winning the US Open that I would win the Serena Slam at all. You have to win each point”. “But Serena is obsessed”.
But she craves more and credits a newfound passion for “contemporary dancing” as the reason for still feeling young enough to compete with – and beat – rivals across three generations.
Scary in a good way.
If Williams does in fact win at the U.S. Open, it will be the first time a player sweeps all four majors in the same the season since Graf accomplished the feat in 1988. I didn’t have an easy go this tournament, but I still just take it one match at a time…
“I saw his semi-final match (against Andy Murray)”.
Serena’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou hailed the American as “unique” on Saturday after she defeated Garbine Muguruza to win a sixth Wimbledon title and 21st at the majors.
“I need to say that I’m happy that I lost in that first round, but it’s still hard for me to admit that”, Williams said of her shocker against Virginie Razzano, a Frenchwoman then ranked No. 111. I’ve kind of solidified my place at No.1.
“I’ve had a couple of injuries. I had never experienced that before”.
Williams also becomes the oldest player to win a major at 33 years, 289 days.
“She’s such a great player”.
“No, of course not”, he said.
“Sharapova is tall, white and blond, and, because of that, makes more money in endorsements than Serena, who is black, handsome and built like one of those monster trucks that crushes Volkswagens at sports arenas”, Stephen Roderick wrote for Rolling Stone in 2013.
Muguruza stopped the rot by winning the second game of the second set, but as the Spaniard’s forehand started to misfire Williams quickly took advantage.
Even Williams stood and applauded from her chair, then told Muguruza, “Don’t be sad”.
In fact, the secret to her current stranglehold on the women’s game, might just be that she has been there, done it and bought the T-shirt.
She did acknowledge that her renowned served “really shaky” during Saturday’s match.
She was proving true to her bold claim and, by the time Muguruza moved into a 4-2 lead, it seemed an epic shock was on the cards. “I felt special”, she explained.
In the end, Muguruza simply couldn’t match Williams’ power and placement.
“Every day thinking this, you know, it worked”.
She was totally dominant until, serving at 5-1, she was broken to love.
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When the top seed and world number one resolved her service struggles after moving one set ahead, Muguruza was left with no outlet. “We’ll see. I’ve won three, so that’s not bad”.
