When the 34-year-old champion beat out Germany’s Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the Ladies Singles final earlier today, she earned her record-tying 22nd grand slam title.
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Serena Williams, left, and Venus Williams hold their trophies after winning the women’s doubles final against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazahkstan and Timea Babos of Hungary on day 13 of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Saturday.
It was a handsome win for Williams, who landed her seventh singles title at Wimbledon after two Grand Slam finals earlier this year.
In Serena, you had one of tennis’s greatest ever servers and power hitters pitted against Kerber, a great retriever.
Serena on finally getting to 22 after failing to reach the landmark at the last three majors: “I have definitely had some sleepless nights with a lot of stuff, coming so close and feeling it and not being able to get there”.
Williams’ victory on Centre Court means she moves level with Steffi Graf’s Open-era record 22 major triumphs and just two short of Margaret Court’s all-time best 24.
Serena Williams won her second Wimbledon title in a matter of hours after joining her sister Venus to claim doubles glory.
She said: “I had to start focusing more on the positives, and once I started doing that I realised I’m pretty good”.
“This is how Serena is playing”, Kerber said. Thereafter it went on serve till 5-6 when a couple of untimely errors from the German World No. 3 gave Williams two set points.
There had been some thought that Serena was really stung by her loss to Vinci at the U.S. Open, that it was too big a disappointment to push aside and it lingered when she followed with the losses to Kerber and Muguruza.
Much of the focus has been on Serena and her continuous run at the top of the singles rankings.
“Even though I didn’t win those tournaments, I was fighting and I was in the final again”.
Aces Williams served against Kerber, above her average of 10 in the six rounds (61 total) before the final.
“At the end, I was trying everything”, a gracious Kerber said, “but she deserved it today. I’m definitely going to enjoy this”.
‘I was just talking through things and how I was disappointed I lost the French and what I needed to do better at Wimbledon, ‘ Williams said.
As such, Williams had to up her game, and did.
The presence of pop royalty Beyonce and Jay-Z in Williams’ box merely added to the magnitude of the occasion but, right from the start, Kerber showed she was not going to be overawed.
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“I think sometime after the French Open, [coach] Patrick [Mouratoglou] and I were talking, strategising”.
