“I had to start looking at positives, not focusing on that one loss per tournament which really isn’t bad – for anyone else on this tour they would be completely happy about it”, she said. She really played an unbelievable match.
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Kerber brought up her first break point at 3-3 in the second, but the World No.1 responded in emphatic fashion.
Serena was crowned women’s champion with victory over Angelique Kerber earlier in the afternoon, while Venus also reached the semi-final – becoming the oldest woman to do so since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
World number one Serena Williams says winning her 22nd Grand slam and seventh Wimbledon title is a huge relief.
It was a double delight for Serena at Wimbledon 2016 as she not only won the women’s singles title, but has also notched up the women’s doubles crown alongside her elder sister Venus Williams.
“It makes the victory even sweeter to know how hard I worked for it”, Williams told ESPN following the match. Then I’ll go on to the next title and then I’ll see how I feel.
But with the Williams serve at its destructive best there was only so much punishment the 28-year-old Kerber could absorb on a breezy Centre Court. “But it’s me, and it’s created why I have 22 Grand Slam titles”.
“I’ve been given such a great opportunity”, Williams said.
“There’s definitely some blurs between eight, nine and ten”, she said. The latter mark ties Steffi Graf’s record for most major wins in the Open Era.
“If anything, I was able to show resilience that, no, that’s not going to shake me, you’re not going to break me”, Williams said, “it’s going to make me stronger”. At some point over those four or five days, towards the end he said I had sent him a text, and in that text he said he recognised I was different. “Nearly every day. Just to try to feel what I needed to do and what was going to be done”.
Kerber said the American was a great champion: “Serena, you deserve it, you are a great champion and great person”.
“I think sometime after the French Open, [coach] Patrick [Mouratoglou] and I were talking, strategising”. The victory at Wimbledon a year ago raised her Grand Slam count to 21, where it remained until Saturday.
‘Even in putting your career first you have to be really selfish and greedy, it is what it is, I come first and that’s what needs to be done in order for me to be the best’. “That is when I started saying “look, I am going”.
“I think the pressure can be off when I decide to put up my rackets”, she said, laughing.
The first six games in the second set went with serve as Babos and Shvedova held firm, but Serena and Venus moved up a gear as they broke the Shvedova serve to lead 4-3 and then Serena held to lead 5-3.
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Despite firing off a double fault while serving for the match, Venus quickly redeemed herself on the next point as Serena picked off a backhand volley to seal the title.
