World Number One, Serena Williams of the United States has defeated Germany’s Angelique Kerber in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 to win the Wimbledon Ladies title. It was her 7th Wimbledon trophy and her 22nd Grand Slam title to equal Germany’s Steffi Graf record in the Open era.
Williams, who is the defending champion, battling gusty winds, got off to a ferocious start on Center Court, wrapping up the first game with her first ace at 40-15. She later went on to serve 13 aces on her way to her 7th triumph at Church Road.
She then missed three break balls at 1-0 up and paid dearly as she later toiled to subdue Kerber, who gave it her all, to win the first set 7-5.
Checkpointcharley has watched Serena Williams since her first grand slam victory in 1999 US Open. You just don’t win Williams; she normally wins herself with unnecessary errors when it is not her day. But today, she played a flawless game and never let Kerber into the match. The scores do not reflect how good Kerber was. She was simply fantastic, unfortunately it was vintage Williams, who was terrific with her serves and aggressive domination. As a champion, she won the crucial points and brought out her best tennis when it mattered.
Which she did to break Kerber 5-3. At that point, it was clear that there will be no stopping Serena.
Serving for the match, she went on to unleash three terrific serves to win the set, match and her 22nd grand slam title.
Yes, she had equalled Graf’s record, but it still need to be said that Williams played in a more competitive era and faced champions like Henin, Clisjters, Davenport, Kutsenova, Sharapova, Dementieva, Hingis, Muaresmo, Capriati, Graf, Ivanovic, Muguruza, Kerber, Halep and her sister Venus of course. Most of them were sent by Serena into early retirement.
Steffi Graf on the other hand, mainly had only Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and a retiring Martina Navratilova to contend with after that ugly stabbing of the world number one, Monica Seles of United States in a tournament in Germany, which somehow ended her career and cleared the way for Graf.
Serena Williams, with this victory today, will definitely go down history as the greatest female tennis player of all times.
She also ensured the continuation of what has become known as the July tradition. The Williams sisters have won 12 of the last 17 Wimbledon championships, so that it has become a tradition that one of the sisters will take the trophy. There has been four Sister Acts on center in 2002,2003, 2008 and 2009 – the two sisters playing against each other in the final. Noteworthy is also the fact that since the Williams sisters~s era, which nearing two decades, no other player, except Justine Henin of Belgium, who has succeeded in winning two grand slam title in one year.
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