Serena Williams has world record-holder Margaret Court’s 24 grand slam singles titles in her sights after winning her 22nd at Wimbledon overnight.
Williams beat Angelique Kerber 7-5 8-3 in what was a superb final that produced awesome strokeplay by both players.
Kerber beat Williams in the Australian Open final last January, which came as a shock.
But last night Kerber was the equal of Williams, with the exception of the serve where Serena dominated.
In the end, that was the deciding factor.
Williams cracked 13 aces to nil, winning 88 per cent of her first serves compared to Kerber’s 59 per cent.
Williams smoked 39 winners to Kerber’s 12, but Kerber’s constant pressure created 21 unforced errors by Williams while Kerber made only nine.
So Williams has equalled Steffi Graf’s career record of 22 Slam singles, taking the monkey off the American’s back.
It had obviously been playing on her mind, having been beaten in the last two Slam finals.
Last night, three of the living legends of women’s tennis – Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, and Martina Navratilova were in the Royal Box, enthusiastically applauding a very special final.
The presentation speeches were of the same high quality.
Said Angelique Kerber: “This is a great title, Serena is a great person and a great player, so well done Serena.”
Said Serena Williams: “Angelique is such a great player who makes me play well, but she’s also a wonderful person who is great to be around.”
The mutual admiration society was genuine as they had hugged each other at the net shaking hands
Williams gave two V for Victory signs that also stood for 22 Slam titles.
That was a memorable final, but the first of two for Serena as she joined big sister Venus for the women’s doubles final against Timea Babos, and Yaroslava Shvedova.
Seeing the Williams sisters have played in 13 Slam doubles finals and won the lot, and Serena is No.1 in world singles and Venus is ranked eighth, how could they be ranked 251 in world doubles?
Regardless, the 251st ranked doubles pair won their 14th Slam 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 27 minutes.
The sisters won the first set in a tight battle with six of the nine games going to 15 deuces. Serena lost her serve in the fifth game with a double fault, but the sisters broke Babos and Shvedova in the sixth and eighth games to serve out the set.
With no deuces in the second set, the sisters broke Shvedova again in the all-important seventh game.
It was left to Venus to serve out the match, but she had her problems as Babos and Shvedova forced two deuces before Venus clinched the final.
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