Williams wins Wimbledon to secure another ‘Serena Slam’
Last year at Wimbledon after exiting to Alize Cornet, Serena Williams declared: “I know I can do better.”
On Saturday at the All England Club came the exclamation point to her turnaround.
Williams defeated promising Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-4 in southwest London to complete the “Serena Slam” — winning four straight majors — for the second time in her career and is now well on the way to making more history at the season’s final grand slam.
“I can’t believe I’m standing here with another Serena Slam,” Williams, emulating her feat of 2002-2003, told the crowd.
Indeed if the American triumphs in September at the U.S. Open — and the odds are stacked in her favor given the 33-year-old is the three-time defending champion — she would become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to achieve the calendar-year grand slam.
A victory would, too, draw the world No. 1 level with Graf on an Open Era leading 22 majors.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Williams surpassed Martina Navratilova by nearly four weeks as the oldest women’s grand slam winner in the Open Era.
The 21-year-old Muguruza, appearing in her first grand slam final, wept in her chair afterward but shouldn’t feel overly disappointed. It’s not very often that Williams loses grand slam finals: She improved to 21-4, last tasting defeat at the 2011 U.S. Open against Samantha Stosur.
Muguruza didn’t go away tamely, either, making matters interesting after trailing 5-1 in the second. The 20th seed won plenty of new fans with her performance at tennis’ grandest arena.
“I want to (congratulate) Serena who is showing us she is world No. 1,” Muguruza said.
Source: CNN
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