Serena Williams (photo ©Emmett Anderson) reached the final defeating Margarita Gasparyan, Timea Babos, Heather Watson, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. So far she lost two sets: one in the fourth round to Watson and one in the quarter-final to Azarenka. She’s in her eighth Wimbledon final and has won five of the seven she played.
Garbiñe Muguruza reached the final defeating Varvara Lepchenko, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Angelique Kerber, Caroline Wozniacki, Timea Bacsinszky and Agnieszka Radwanska. So far she lost three sets: one in the second round to Lucic-Baroni, one in the third round to Kerber and one in the semifinal to Radwanska. This is her first final in a Grand Slam tournament.
Serena Williams starts with low precision in her serve and with two consecutive double faults offers Garbiñe Muguruza a break point, she cancels it but still has problems and at the fourth break point she loses her service game. The American is more tense than her opponent in this beginning of the match but she adjusts the the measure of her service and wins her service game in the third game after being down 0-30. Williams also finds the measure of her return and this helps her to earn two break points in the sixth game but the Spaniard plays well and wins her service game. The American insists and in the eighth game breaks her opponent to tie the score at 4-4. Muguruza doesn’t hold back but Williams raises her level and in the tenth game breaks her again to close the first set 6-4.
In the second set Garbiñe Muguruza wins her service game in the second game ending a streak of five consecutive games for Serena Williams across the two sets. The balance doesn’t last long because in the fourth game the American breaks her opponent and does it again in the sixth game. On 5-1 Williams serves for the match but the tension seems to come back because she loses the service tries again, tries again on 5-3, offers three consecutive break points, cancels them, has a match point but Muguruza cancels it, offers another break point but the Spaniard responds a millimeter out and at the fifth break point loses her service game again. On 5-4, in her most difficult moment, Williams still can find the shots to break her opponent to win the second set 6-4 conquering the match and her sixth Wimbledon title.
Garbiñe Muguruza played an excellent tournament and in the final wasn’t crushed by the emotion of the first final of such importance. It wasn’t enough but this is a young player who has already reached high levels and can still improve. I’d be really surprised if we don’t see her in a Grand Slam final again.
Serena Williams keeps on winning even if she can’t dominate as she did in the past. Despite her vast experience, today she showed that she still feels strong emotions in events such as a Grand Slam final but eventually she won it again. Now she holds the titles of all the Grand Slam tournaments, showing her greatness another time. She doesn’t want to talk about it but it’s now clear that her goal is win the U.S. Open to win the Grand Slam.
