Reuters
London, July 10: Serena Williams put the icing on the cake of another magnificent Wimbledon campaign by teaming up with elder sister Venus for a sixth doubles crown at the All England Club here, Saturday.
The reigning Olympic champions scripted an easy 6-3, 6-4 win over the pair of Timea Babos of Hungary and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova on Centre Court — hours after Serena claimed a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam singles title by defeating Germany’s Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3.
Serena has now won both the Wimbledon singles and doubles (with Venus) in the same year on four occasions. The American duo have a perfect 14-0 record in Grand Slam doubles finals.
For Venus it was a consolation after she lost to Kerber in Thursday’s singles semifinals — denying her a first Grand Slam singles final since losing to Serena at Wimbledon in 2009.
“It’s a privilege, it’s an honor,” said Venus. “When you enter the doubles draw, you dream of winning. Then we enter the singles, we dream of winning.”
The sisters, who paired up again this year after a two-year absence, have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles together — moving them level with American Gigi Fernandez and Belarussian Natasha Zvereva in second place on the all-time list.
They still have some way to go, however, to match the 20 of Martina Navratilova and fellow American Pam Shriver.
“I didn’t know about that stat until yesterday (Saturday), that we were 13-0,” said Venus. “It’s not something you really think about. You just get to the final and try to win.
“I don’t think it made us nervous. You got time. If you get down a break, you always have time to get the break back. You can always go to a third (set).
The Williams sisters are now 22-1 in all doubles finals they have played together.
Serena calls victory memorable
Serena Williams does finally call it a day after her triumph in the Wimbledon women’s singles final, she says she will always remember the moment she beat Germany’s Angelique Kerber Saturday to equal legendary Steffi Graf’s professional era record of 22 grand slam singles titles.
“There’s definitely some blurs between eight, nine and 10,” the American who began her collection at the 1999 US Open when beating Swiss Martina Hingis, told reporters.
Williams won her 21st singles major a year ago by beating Spain’s Garbine Muguruza at Wimbledon. Since then her reputation as a ruthless closer has been questioned after the calendar year Grand Slam dream went up in smoke in the 2015 US Open semifinals, before defeats from Kerber and Muguruza in the Australian and French Open finals respectively. Williams even banned herself from talking about the 22 as this year’s Wimbledon entered its business end.
But after rediscovering her ruthless streak in her 28th grand slam singles final she said that it was a special feeling and there had been a few sleepless nights fretting about it.
“If I’m honest, coming so close, feeling it, not being able to quite get there,” she said. “My goal is to win always at least a slam a year. It was getting down to the pressure.”
Apart from a slight scare when she dropped a set against fellow American Christina McHale in round two — Williams has looked perfectly at ease during the championships.
“I had to start looking at positives, not focusing on that one loss per tournament which really isn’t bad – for anyone else on this tour they would be completely happy about it,” she said.
