Serena Williams sealed concurrent ownership of the four major championships in her sport, beating the bright young Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza 6-4, 6-4 in an hour and 23 minutes to win her sixth Wimbledon. If the 33-year-old American can retain her US Open title in September, she will also have a calendar-year grand slam at last – and all talk of the legitimacy of the “Serena slam” will be shelved forever – as well as drawing alongside the record 22 majors owned by Steffi Graf.
However, she did not make it easy for herself in this in her 25th slam final. It’s all very well having the biggest serve in tennis but if you fail to land six of them in the box in the first game of a grand slam final against a hungry young contender like Muguruza, life gets complicated.
Spanish eyes lit up when her vaunted opponent gifted her the first game on the fourth break point, pushing a trembling backhand long after seven worrying minutes for the American. Maria Sharapova had three double-faults in her first service game against Williams in the semi-finals and lost. Would we witness another meltdown here?
There was no early peace for Williams, no room for her to work her way into the match as Muguruza drew on the experience of having beaten her so handily in her troubled times at the French Open in 2014, when ranked 35 in the world. That was a shock, even though Williams was not at her best. These were different circumstances. Muguruza, seeded 20th, had worked her way assiduously through the draw, finishing off the challenges of Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska to ear a place in her first slam final.
Her confidence and her daring were sky-high. She held for 2-0 and took two points off the Williams serve, which had dipped to an alarming 20%, before the world No1 finally got a grip on her tennis. Having served 87 aces in six matches, she was at a loss to understand why her biggest weapon was consistently malfunctioning.
The serve finally clicked and she trailed 1-2 after quarter of an hour. At least she was now in the match. She had a look at deuce in the fourth game but her footwork was sluggish and her face anguished; she had plenty to do to catch up.
A second ace settled her nerves as she held in the fifth but she still struggled for rhythm off the ground. Muguruza, meanwhile, was hanging tough and saved two break points to maintain her lead. The question that whispered its way around Centre Court now was: could she keep it up and take the first set?
After half an hour, Williams struck something like her best serving form, holding to love for 3-4, but her ground strokes and her balance needed work.
Williams got another two break points, the first saved by the Spaniard’s second ace, the second surrendered with a loose forehand and they were back to parity.
A fourth double-fault did not slow Williams’ fightback and Muguruza found herself serving to stay in the set just 20 minutes after having the world No1 bemused and at her mercy. And, after an ace got her to game point, she again hit wide for deuce then double-faulted. Williams had set point – and took it, after 44 minutes, with an angry, relieved forehand.
She closed her eyes and breathed deep during the break. Soon, the familiar pattern would emerge: an opponent in contention introduced to the reality of sustaining the challenge.
Williams broke, held and was 3-1 up in the second, and banging down her eighth ace nearly an hour after those three double faults had given Muguruza hope. A ninth ace induced panic at the other end and the Spaniard’s forehand drifted long.
The best player in the world was now a couple of games away from confirming it, if she could crack Muguruza’s serve again and finish the way she knows best. However, Muguruza was not quite done and broke her to love in the seventh game.
The ninth game of the second set encapsulated the struggle. Muguruza, having held through deuce to force Williams to serve for the title, the world No 1, double-faulted for the eighth time and watching two staggering ground strokes whirr past her, faced three break points.
She struck a 10th ace for 30-40 and one more for deuce. Her 12th, at 121 miles an hour, delivered her championship point, but Muguruza saved, advancing to the net to land a perfect forehand in the deuce corner. They both hit long, Muguruza by a millimetre, within the margin of error.
Williams netted a forehand from the baseline and the crowd went wild as the Spaniard lived again. She took it with a belting backhand for 4-5, and the mood of the match was transformed yet again.
The end could hardly have been a greater anticlimax. Muguruza double-faulted for the second time; Williams got the benefit of a kind net cord; Muguruza hit long – and then just wide, and the deed was done.
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