Just like that, the heartbreak endured at the three most recent Grand Slam events, including setbacks in two finals, was erased by Serena Williams at the All-England Club on Saturday afternoon. Serena avenged an Australian Open loss to Angelique Keber by defeating the German 7-5, 6-3 for the Wimbledon title.
The top-seeded American, who now boasts 22 major singles titles, triumphed after one hour and 21 minutes.
“More than anything I think it was a really good and exciting win for me today,” Williams reflected. “I think it was a great final. [Kerber] played really well. We had a lot of long, tough points. I think every single point I worked for, and nothing was given to me. It made for a really good match.”
How good is good? Well, Kerber lost despite committing only nine unforced errors. Even by the laughably generous standards of the Wimbledon statisticians, that is an impressively low number. As for Serena, she crushed 39 winners–including 13 aces–to only 21 errors. The world No. 1 fought off a break point in the seventh game of the second set with an ace and delivered a love service hold at 5-3 to clinch victory.
“I think [it] is just the ability to turn up my level and turn up my game when I need to in crunch time,” Serena responded when asked about what makes her so good at closing matches. “I think I was able to do that today.”
“I think I played what I could today,” Kerber commented. “I can just say Serena was serving unbelievable. At the end I was trying everything, but she deserved it. She really played an unbelievable match. I think we both [played at] a really high level. I [tried] everything. I mean, I think I was not the one who [lost] the match; I think she won the match.”
The same can be said of the doubles championship match, in which Serena and Venus Williams once again completely took the rackets out of the opposition. The sisters were broken just once while overpowering Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 27 minutes.
Serena and Venus extended their mind-boggling record in slam finals to 14-0, with six of their titles coming at Wimbledon.
As for Serena in singles, she is an incredible 22-6 lifetime in major title matches. A rare losing streak, during which she fell to Kerber in Melbourne and to Garbine Muguruza at last month’s French Open on the heels of a semifinal shocker against Roberta Vinci at the 2015 U.S. Open, is now a thing of the past.
America
Agreed! This was an outstanding match. So happy for Serena!