Serena Williams wins fourth Wimbledon crown
Serena Williams has won her fourth Wimbledon title and with it takes outright sixth place on the list of women’s tennis’ most prolific Grand Slam champions.
With her 6-3, 6-2 victory over Vera Zvonareva in today’s ladies’ singles final the defending champion has claimed her 13th career title at the majors, and now moves one championship ahead of Billie-Jean King on the on the list that his headed by Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam titles.
It was, in the end, the expected result for Williams against a player who had played the Grand Slam tournament of her career and who started the match without showing any sign of the early nerves that might be anticipated in her debut Grand Slam final but who was ultimately overwhelmed by an opponent who is destined to be remembered as one of the greats of the game.
After serving so strongly all tournament, Williams finished the championships with a total of 89 aces, including nine in the final, where Zvonareva couldn’t even muster a break point opportunity against her opponent’s serve.
Both players held serve easily in their first service games of the final, but it was Zvonareva who, thanks to some errors by the defending champion, including her first double fault of the match, had perhaps the first outside chance of taking an early lead when scores reached deuce in Serena’s second service game, but the top seed’s serve came to the rescue, with an ace ultimately securing the hold.
Zvonareva responded by dropping just one point on her serve in the fourth game of the match, but from there, holding serve become that bit more difficult.
When the 21st seed landed a forehand from a high bouncing ball outside the tramlines on the first point of her third service game, and then lost the next point too, there was every reason for Zvonareva to start to feel the pressure. Instead, she stood firm to win the next two points before sending another forehand wide, but saved the break point and produced a timely ace for the advantage and another strong serve to secure the most important service hold of the match to that point.
She wasn’t to be so lucky in her next service game though as again Serena brought up break point, only to squander it with an unforced error, but with a little help for the net cord she had another chance and there was nothing accidental about the passing shot that finally sealed the break for the American.
And while two set points went begging as Williams produced a pair of untimely errors, it was a mistake by Zvonareva on the third that handed Serena the 1-0 lead in the match.
Zvonareva had fought back from the same position to win both her quarter-final and semi-final matches, but pulling off a come-from-behind victory against the world’s best player was always going to be a much, much more difficult task.
It took only the opening game for Serena to secure the break in the second set, as the 28-year-old ensured that her opponent started to feel the heat of not just another sunny London day for this year’s tournament, but also from the world’s best player as she moved up into Grand Slam final winning gear.
When Zvonareva double faulted to hand Serena her second break of the set and a 4-1 lead in it, it must have taken all her restraint not to take out her frustrations on her racquet – something she’s been no stranger to doing in the past.
Serena ultimately sealed the victory in the eighth game of the set with an overhead that was ultimately as emphatic as her defeat of Zvonareva, who was left to lament how close, yet how far, she was from a Wimbledon title in 2010, as Serena tossed her racquet in the air and began her victory celebrations.
Tags: