Serena Williams plays a return to Garbine Muguruza
Serena Williams beat Garbine Muguruza in the Wimbledon final, making her the first player since 2003 to hold all four major tennis titles at once.
Her 6-4, 6-4 victory over the Spaniard on Centre Court was her fourth straight title, allowing her to repeat her self-styled “Serena slam” of holding all the major singles trophies at the same time – a feat she also achieved in 2002-03 when she beat her sister Venus for the titles.
Williams’ triumph also puts her three-quarters of the way to completing the coveted grand slam of all four majors in one calendar year. Germany’s Steffi Graf was the last player to do so, in 1988. Her 21st major singles championship moves her within one of Graf’s Open era record.
Williams settled down to take the first set after Muguruza took advantage of double faults to break in the opening game. The serve, often a weapon for Williams, let her down and the Spaniard smashed back the slower second serves. Williams was berating herself over the shot even on points that she won.
She ran off 5 straight games to win the first set and take a lead in the second, before Muguruza broke back. Williams won the match when Muguruza hit a forehand wide. Confusion over whether the shot would be reviewed meant Williams couldn’t break out in celebration immediately.
At 33 years, 289 days Williams is the oldest woman to win a grand slam since tennis turned professional in 1968.
Since winning her fifth title at the All England Club in 2012, Wimbledon has been her least successful major for the top- ranked American. After crashing out of the third round last year, Williams rebounded by winning the U.S., Australian and French opens.
Williams had to fight hard for the last two legs of the Serena slam. At Roland Garros, she struggled with flu and had to come back from a set down five times for the first time in any major. At Wimbledon, Williams was twice two points away from defeat in the third round against 59th-ranked Briton Heather Watson, and then had to beat three grand slam champions – Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova – to reach her 25th major championship match.
In the Wimbledon finals, she overcame a player who had handed her the most one-sided defeat in a major; a crushing 6-2, 6-2 defeat in the second round of last year’s French Open.
The 21-year-old Muguruza had been the first Spanish woman in the Wimbledon finals since Conchita Martinez ended Martina Navratilova’s quest for a tenth title in 1994. Seeded 20 at Wimbledon, she’ll be ranked at a career-high No. 9 on the women’s tour next week. Her defeat means two-time winner Petra Kvitova remains the only player – male or female – born in the 1990s to have won a grand slam. Bloomberg
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