Serena Williams chalked up her fourth successive Slam singles early this morning with a 6-4 6-4 win over talented Spaniard Garbine Muguruza at Wimbledon.
Having beaten Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 6-3 to win last year’s US Open, then beat Maria Sharapova 6-2 7-6 at the Australian, and Lucie Safarova 6-3 6-7 6-2 to win the French, she completed the Serena Slam for the second time – the first in 2002-2003.
Next up, Williams will defend her US Open crown and if successful will join Maureen ‘Little Mo’ Connelly in 1953, Margaret Court in 1970, and Steffi Graf in 1988 as the only women Grand Slammers by winning all four in the calendar year.
At 33, Williams is the oldest women’s Slam singles champion in history, but the way she’s playing there’s a lot more in store for the powerhouse American.
Wimbledon was her 21st Slam, trailing only Court’s 24, and Graf’s 22.
With her killer instinct very much intact, Williams won’t rest until she wins 25 or more Slams to hold just about every individual record.
High on her targets is Martina Navratilova’s record nine wins at the home of tennis – Williams now has six.
The $2.94 million she won at Wimbledon took her career earnings to a tick over $76 million as the highest paid sportswomen of all time.
Tonight tennis fans, put on your safety belts when seven times champion Roger Federer takes on defending champion Novak Djokovic in what promises to be an epic men’s singles decider.
Their head-to-head underlines how close and how classical their battles have been – Federer leads 20-19 – it’s 1-1 on grass.
A win for Federer would make him the most successful Wimbledon champion with eight, edging past Williams Renshaw (1881-1887) and Pete Sampras (1990-2002) with seven.
And the win will raise Federer’s overall Slam record to 18, well ahead of Sampras and Rafael Nadal’s 14.
The $2.94 million on offer would take Federer’s career earnings to just over $94 million.
If Djokovic wins tonight, it will be his third Wimbledon and 12th Slam, taking his career earnings to nearly $83 million.
To give an insight into how the greats have performed at Slam time, Federer leads the way, with Djokovic equal eighth.
Federer, with 17 Slam championships and eight losing finals, has been playing for 13 years.
Nadal with a 14-6 record, has been playing for 11 years.
Sampras – 14-4 played for 13 years.
Roy Emerson – 12-3, played for only seven years.
Rod Laver – 11-6, played for a decade, but missed 20 Slams when he turned pro and tennis was amateur.
Bjorn Borg – 11-5, played for eight years.
Bill Tilden – 10-5, played for 11 years from 1920 to 1930.
Ken Rosewall – 8-8, played for two decades from 1953 to 1972, but missed 40 Slams when he was a pro, and the sport amateur.
And Djokovoic – 8-8, who has been on tour for eight years.
So tonight we will be watching two of the greatest players in the history of tennis.
Let the fireworks begin.
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