It all comes down to Serena Williams and Simona Halep for the 2019 Wimbledon women’s singles title on Saturday. Serena is bidding for her 24th Grand Slam title and eighth at the All-England Club; Halep eyes her second slam triumph (first at Wimbledon).
(7) Simona Halep vs. (11) Serena Williams
With a chance to tie Margaret Court at an all-time record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, Serena will be supremely motivated to get the job done on Saturday. Whereas many players fold when they put a lot of pressure on themselves, the American consistently rises to the occasion. Just look at her record in slam finals: it is 23-8. She is 7-3 in Wimbledon finals, and last year’s runner-up finish to Angelique Kerber can be attributed in part to the fact that Serena was on the comeback trail from childbirth.
Finally back to her best self, the world No. 10 (who would be ranked higher if she played more tournaments) is looking primed to lift her first major trophy since the 2017 Australian Open. She has been ruthless so far at the All-England Club, surrendering just two total sets—one in an extremely high-quality quarterfinal against countrywoman Alison Riske. In Serena’s four straight-set wins, she did not get pushed to a single tiebreaker.
Both finalists are coming off impressive semifinal showings; Serena sauntered past Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-2, while Halep rolled over Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-3. The 27-year-old Romanian is through to her first final at the AELTC, ending a drought of four majors without getting past the quarterfinals since she won her first and only slam at the 2017 French Open. Halep is 1-3 lifetime in GS finals.
Far worse is the world No. 7’s record in this head-to-head series, which she trails 9-1–including 0-1 at Wimbledon and 0-1 this season. Halep has lost four matches in a row to her nemesis since her lone success in 2014.
Pick: Serena to win (-190)
Other picks
Serena to win in two sets (+125) – Halep is capable of making this competitive and even winning it, but she would need some help from Serena. The discrepancy in firepower means Serena will completely dictate the outcome of this contest, and her current form suggests that she will make no mistake. Five of the 37-year-old’s eight victories over Halep have come in straight sets, including three in which she has lost no more than four total games.
Halep under 1.5 aces (-135) – Halep fired three aces past first-round opponent Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Since then she has hit two aces in only one match and exactly one in her four other matches. Serena is moving better than she has in a while right now, which will help her combat anything Halep throws in her direction.
[polldaddy poll=10361588]
WWW?
Serena in 2, losing 4 games or fewer 😀
Natashao, you were right, just swap the names :)))
Halep will take this convincingly.
Halep will make Serena run and turn around. The American will not be able to cope.
If Halep wins this, it would be pretty amazing.
The sudden transition from worst surface to Wimbledon champion.
I’d love for serena to win but I am afraid halep will beat her like kerber did last year.
She hasnt been the same since australian open 2017. Halep in 2 or 3 sets and please no drama like the US open. Please enough is enough. This is a gentleman and ladies sport not a diva rehearsal.
I’d love for Halep to win but I am afraid Serena will beat her.
Should be a great match…halep in 3 tough sets!
Does Simona even stand a chance against Serena? Maybe she does, if she can make Serena run corner to corner – http://www.138mph.com/does-simona-halep-stand-chance-against-serena-williams-in-wimbledon-final/
Serena getting taken to the woodshed!
Halep looks pretty uncomfortable on the grass!
Some terrible errors from Serena!
You know what I meant there…?
Well Simona was excellent but Serena had practically zero timing on her shots!
Bravo Simona!!☺
Halep plays like a female version of Djoko. She’s getting every ball back and hitting some unbelievable shots! She’s playing aggressive tennis here; she’s giving Serena a beat down, now serving for the match, and, she wins the title!
Congrats and well done!!
Good to see Simona looking so happy! She went out pretty tamely at RG so this must feel amazing!
That was a very disappointing final though…
Wow! Bravo Simona! I thought Serena would destroy her with her serve, but Serena’s serve deserted her today…
Serena was not herself today but Simona was just great!
Ricky, you are missing left and right :). Please don’t pick Djokovic over Federer.
I’ve missed one match recently (Fedal). the WTA doesn’t count in my picks.
“The WTA doesn’t count in my picks.”
haha, be careful my friend, liberals might strike.
No we don’t strike. Ricky has made plain that he doesn’t like picking WTA.
As a long-time fan of Simona Halep, with years wondering if she would ever win a GS, of course this is a HUGE WIN!! Congrats Simona, on you 2nd GS title and it is particularly sweet that you won Wimbledon. So very proud of you!!
You’re not liberal, you’re the female alias that’s pre-arranged to defend Ricky every time he gets a prediction wrong. #dishonesty #deception
I think Serena wants to win another major too badly and as was mentally out of the match from the start. Halep was fantastic but Serena was also an unforced error machine.
Simona Halep, Wimbledon Champion?!?! That does not compute. She played just great! Unbelievable. Big grats to her and her many fans. Condolences to Serena, who was a very gracious loser today.
Well done Simona Halep, amazing player, amazing speech.
https://youtu.be/bFg-3gK-d7g
Wow. Just wow. I knew Simona could win today, but I did not think she was capable of playing THAT perfect of a grass-court match, against the undisputed GOAT. This win SIGNIFICANTLY boosts her legacy, and I believe that it could potentially springboard her toward multiple more major titles. If Simona Halle can beat SERENA WILLIAMS at a WIMBLEDON FINAL, then there is absolutely NOTHING that she cannot achieve. The sky is so the limit for her now… I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends her career with the career grand slam. She has been great at both AO and USO at times in the past. Now she knows for sure that she is capable of beating any woman in the world on any given day!
As for Serena, I think we can now conclude that burying the devil, Margaret Court (it makes me angry just typing her name), is clearly even more important to Serena than we thought. Losing to Simona Halep, especially at 38 years old, is not shocking. She did not simply lose to Simona, though. The Serena we saw all fortnite long was not on court today. It was a Serena Williams imposter. I don’t care how incredibly her opponent is playing or how old Serena is- she might lose, but she does NOT get blown off the court in a WIMBLEDON final. This is a woman who hardly EVER lost major Finals, at any of the 4 tournaments. But since she got to just 1 major title behind Steffi, and 3 behind the 👿, that near-invincibility in Slam Finals has been completely turned on its head… Since the moment she became only 1 title shy of tying the Open Era record, a still-great yet different Serena has emerged. A 2-5 record in her last 7 major Finals is the most UN-Serena thing I’ve ever heard! Plus two other SF losses? In her entire career before the 2015 US Open, since 1998, she had only ever lost 3 out of 28 major SF matches…
She had obviously earned the right for everyone to see her as almost a foregone conclusion in major finals. The downside of that is that it started to build this notion that Serena Williams is “not human”. We’ve seen it to a lesser extent at times with the Big 3 in the men’s game, but nothing even remotely close to what it was with Serena. When someone wins almost every time they make it to the SF, it can be really easy to forget that they are still a normal human being like the rest of us- with feelings, emotions, nerves, self-doubt, etc.
I think that even before today, some people have still been somehow unable to see her as not a super-human. I really hope that those people can finally put that notion to bed, and fully realize that Serena Williams has ALWAYS been a normal human being who just so happened to be unusually dominant at what she does. She’s not just a damn machine. In her life she has been through countless tragedies, hardships, heartbreaks, triumphs, beautiful moments, and sad moments. She is a mother, a partner, a sister, an athlete, and a very complicated individual like ALL of us!
Maybe it has been harder for people grasp her human-ness because it was suddenly shown so suddenly and intensely? One minute she was perceived as someone who strictly eats, sleeps, and breathes tennis, and has no desire or need for any typical human-like things, i.e. romantic relationships, starting a family, having hobbies, etc. Then almost overnight, she suddenly and very publicly is married with a baby, and is not playing tennis at all! For literally everyone else in the world, that is seen as just the normal phase of life that most people go through. But because Serena is Serena, it was shocking to people! She literally BARELY avoided death in the process of starting her family. I can’t think of anything more “human” then dying from child birth…
*I just need to go on a little tangent here real quick, although it is still related… When she returned to tennis, she was not an “more human” than she ever was before. Her “normalcy” was just more out in the open. She was now very publicly coping with the fact that her human-ness was now out in the open. When any perceived “normal” woman returns to their work after having their first child and almost dying in the process, and they struggle to get back to where they were before, and are clearly struggling mentally, we generally give those women a pass- as we should! But when Serena comes back and is trying to be Serena Williams again after all these massive changes in her life, we are so goddamn unforgiving of her understandable struggles! “Normal” Mothers who return to work and are naturally struggling emotionally and maybe argue with their co-workers, we have sympathy for them because we know they are going through something extremely difficult. But with Serena, she is not allowed to be moody and hormonal. She’s not allowed to have an argument with the chair umpire without the whole world tearing her to shreds. (I’m speaking very generally here. I have stated many times in the past that while sexism is rampant in tennis, Serena was at fault for that incident). Not to mention that any “normal” mother returning to life after such big changes has the benefit of not having the whole world watching her. That’s a whole added level of stress that would certainly always make whatever struggles she is having post-child birth become infinitely more challenging.
I got off on a tangent there, sorry. The unfair and unrealistic expectations of Serena have always been a real thing, though, and it’s time that everyone FULLY realize and accept that she is a 100% normal woman who has been through SO much hardship like all of us, while also experiencing incredible highs.
The point is that she clearly cares IMMENSELY about retiring with the most major titles ever. Personally, I think it sucks that she feels this pressure because EVERYONE knows that the devil Margaret Court is not even a FRACTION of the tennis player that Serena Williams is. We all know that Margaret Court not only won most of her majors in the amateur era, but that she won at least 1/3 of her major titles at what was arguably a FUTURES tournament in Australia. The draw was all Australian players, with none of the great players of the time. Court is obviously still an all-time great, but she ain’t even on the level of Billie Jean King or Martina or Chrissie, let alone Serena or Steffi. However, I also understand that it doesn’t matter what I think- it only matters what Serena thinks. And I can totally understand her wanting to make sure that there no longer any argument that her haters can try to point to to somehow claim she isn’t unquestionably the GOAT. And it clearly means more than we can understand to get to 24 or 25 majors. And no one can deny anymore that she is very mentally affected by this quest, and that she is 100% human like all the rest of us!