Upon the qualification of Serena Williams into the finals of Wimbledon 2016, the buzz started to spread across the tennis fans and commentators that what will be on display in the final will be perhaps a history in the making.
Serena had immense pressure on her coming into this Wimbledon final, after having lost Australian open final earlier this year to this very opponent in Kerber and then again lost to Muguruza in the French Open final, the pressure ought to be there and the figure #22 would’ve been on her mind.
This Wimbledon though, Serena looked the strongest that she has all through the last year – the impeccably outclassing game has left her opposition almost feeling that even a 100% game against Serana will result in a loss, should the American play even 80% to her potential – which speaks about Serena’s pure dominance in the women’s circuit.
Kerber on the other end has had a positive year with a grand slam win at the start of the year, in the Australian open.
In the final, Kerber showed some great signs of a competitive game. She was a true fighter, who fought the strong serve of Serena and ensured to pull the ball back into play as much as she could – to force a possible error from Serena but when the latter is in her peak form, the errors just don’t come. It is crucial to know for tennis fans who don’t follow the sports regularly, the view around the tennis experts since last year’s US Open (in which Serena lost in semi) has been that the American loses not because of impeccable gameplay from her opposition but the error that she forces and hence she more than anyone is prone to not being 100% into a match, should she play to her potential – there’s no opponent in the current women’s draw to beat her.
The final saw Serena at the peak of her game but that doesn’t take away from the competitive spirit in which the match took place. The first set was leveled at 5-5, at which point Serena won her serve and was leading 6-5, with Kerber serving to stay in the first set. It was at this juncture of the match that Serena squeezed a crucial break point and thus avoided a tie-breaker in the first set. With 7-5 win in the first, Serena was leading the match 1-0.
The second set was going equally leveled at 3-3, with Serena serving to lead 4-3; it was this roller-coaster serving game that saw Serena leading 30-0 only to find her just a few minutes later saving a break point from Kerber with the latter leading 40-30 in the serve, a break of service would’ve taken Kerber to 4-3. However like the true fighter that Serena is, she smashed 2 aces and what a time to have a good serve! Serena had ADVANTAGE and she played out a rally, in which an error from Kerber got Serena the lead at 4-3, managing to save a break of serve (Kerber’s only chance in whole of the match, testimony to American’s phenomenal service game).
The very next serve of Kerber was broken by the American and she was serving to not only win her 7th Wimbledon but also her 22nd grand slam, a feat fitting for the title “legend”. The American ensured that there were no last minute thrills into the match and emerged as the incomparable grass-court Champion with a 7-5 6-3 win in the Wimbledon final 2016, beating the Australian open Champion in Kerber, the German will take a lot of heart from this loss because against the form of Serena, a fighting match is all she could’ve asked for.
Other results :
Herbert/Mahut bt Bennetau/Roger-Vasselin 6-4 7-6 6-3 (Men’s doubles Final)
Williams Sisters bt Babos/Shvedova 3-6 4-6
Potapova bt Yastremsla 6-4 6-3 (Ladies Singles)
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