And so she can flaunt it.
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Serena Williams admitted she was relieved to finally equal Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 grand slam singles titles on Sunday morning (AEST).
“Yeah, it’s been incredibly hard not to think about it”. Talk now will surely center on the American attempting to get to Margaret Court’s 24 grand slams, the all-time record. But, you know, if you look at the big picture, I was just thinking about, you know, getting to three finals, Grand Slam finals. “It’s going to take a lot of education and a lot of work, I think, to get to that point”, she said. “By losing, you realize things”.
Later Saturday, Williams had a chance to head home with a second piece of hardware: She and Venus were scheduled to play in the women’s doubles final, with a chance to win their 14th Grand Slam doubles title together.
As well as seven at Wimbledon, the 34-year-old now holds six singles titles at the Australian Open, three at the French Open and six at the US Open.
The 34-year-old American did it, as she often does, with almost impeccable serving.
The top seed had to recover from 15-30 down to hold for 6-5 with her eighth ace.
Powered by booming serves and hammered winners, she also reduced unforced errors, a bugaboo Williams fought even in victory.
Williams served out the match at love.
“I came so close at the last three Grand Slams and was not able to pull through but I felt when I came into Wimbledon I had taken the pressure off, I didn’t feel it any more”. She then expressed some of her feelings on Twitter.
“Today just her serve was much better”, Kerber said.
“Congrats to Serena – you really deserve the title”, Kerber said in her on-court interview. If Serena can keep her motivation and stay healthy I think she can be the greatest ever.
The German woman’s task was clearly to hold on and seek to let Hurricane Serena blow out which she nearly seemed to accomplish, getting to the stage late in the set where, moving better and striking the ball more cleanly and consistently than at any point in her match against Williams’ older sister Venus in the semi-final, she was now able to take her opponent to deuces on successive service games.
The American headed into the contest as favourite, but was hoping to banish memories of her defeat to Kerber in the Australian Open final in January.
“For me, it’s about obviously holding the trophy and winning, which would make it a better accomplishment for me”.
“I think I was still playing not bad”, Kerber said.
Serena Williams displays the trophy after winning the 7th Wimbledon title at London on Saturday. After dropping that tiebreaker, Williams sat in her sideline chair and proceeded to smack her racket repeatedly against the grass, before flinging the equipment so far behind her that it landed in the lap of a TV cameraman.
That earned Williams a $10,000 fine, but perhaps it pointed her in the right direction.
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In singles, Williams got better as the tournament went along, taking the last 12 sets she played after dropping a tiebreaker to open her second-round match against Christina McHale.
