Two months ago, Serena Williams was in attendance at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
On Saturday, it was the new Duchess’ turn to play spectator, but she could only watch her close friend play the helpless bystander as Angelique Kerber etched her name onto the Wimbledon roll of honour…
.
All Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber could do on Saturday afternoon was watch and wait for Novak Djokovic’s semi-final with Rafael Nadal to conclude.
All Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber could do on Saturday afternoon was watch and wait for Novak Djokovic’s semi-final with Rafael Nadal to conclude.
Their final had to wait, originally scheduled for 2pm, they made their way out at 4.05pm after Djokovic finally put Nadal to the sword.
There was no denying that witnessing Djokovic-Nadal was an extra treat for the Centre Court crowd, but they had paid to see the women’s final, and were hoping for a tight affair.
As the duo made their way out onto court, flowers in tow, royalty looking on, it was difficult to believe this was number 11 seed Kerber facing 25th seed Williams, especially as we were about to watch a repeat of the 2016 Australian Open and Wimbledon final.
. But those numbers were simply indications of the past 12 months both have been through, Kerber struggling with form after reaching the world’s summit, with Williams on the comeback trail after giving birth in September.
And as the match got under way, it felt natural to see these two grace the Wimbledon turf on the final Saturday of the tournament. The recent past was old news as the two battled it out for glory.
It was the German who drew first blood, but Williams battled back to level the first set. However, Kerber confirmed she was no sidekick in this story when breaking the American twice more to take the set 6-3. After 31 minutes, it was advantage Kerber.
Williams looked tight in the first set, and Kerber was all too happy to capitalise. Come the second set, a bizarre shot-selection left Serena looking to the skies, when a simple volley would have been enough to bring up two break points.
The chance left her, and she soon found herself 4-2 down as Kerber once more made her pay for inaccuracies.
A break up, it was a test of Kerber’s mettle to see if she could serve out twice to clinch a first Wimbledon title, and third Grand Slam overall.
She passed the first test, moving 5-2 in front, and after Williams held, Kerber found herself serving for the Championship.
Perhaps the most lasting image of the final will be Williams dropping to her knees after sending a volley in that game long. It allowed Kerber to move 30-0 in front, but a remarkable Serena drop-shot and then backhand followed to bring it to 30-30.
The nerviest of points followed, but Kerber brought up championship point with a forehand that somehow dropped in, and she soon fell to the floor in elation as Serena sent a simple return into the net.
After one hour and five minutes, it was the result no one was really expecting, but as Centre Court rose to its feet, and Kerber rushed up to celebrate with her family and friends, it felt a fitting finale, as a new Wimbledon champion came to the fore.
The build-up was dominated by talk of Serena, but it was Kerber who stole the limelight when it mattered most, breaking four times and keeping the error-count down.
There is no doubt Serena will be back, and hungry for number 24, but this was Kerber’s afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment