By McCarton Ackerman, USTA.com
World No. 1 Serena Williams made tennis history on Saturday at Wimbledon, winning her seventh women's singles title at the All England Club and her 22nd overall Grand Slam singles title by defeating No. 4 seed Angelique Kerber in the championship match, 7-5, 6-3.
With the win, Williams equaled the Open era record held by Steffi Graf for most Grand Slam singles titles. She clinched the match with a forehand volley winner and collapsed to the ground in celebration.
“It makes the victory even sweeter to know how hard I worked for it,” said Williams, who now trails only Margaret Court (24 Slam crowns) all-time.
A single break of serve in each set was all the top seed needed to take the match. She broke Kerber at 6-5 to clinch the opening set and again at 4-3 in the second set. Williams comfortably closed out the match to love on her serve in the final game.
Williams didn’t drop serve once all match, firing 13 aces to just three double faults. She finished the day with 39 winners to 21 unforced errors.
Williams has been putting together another outstanding season, either finishing as runner-up or winning five of the six events she’s played this year. In addition to winning Wimbledon and the WTA Premier 5 event in Rome, she was a finalist at the Australian Open, French Open and BNP Paribas Open.
“I've just felt a lot of pressure, I guess," Williams told wimbledon.com, referring to her title match losses in Melbourne and Roland Garros. "I put a lot of that pressure on myself. Obviously I’ve had some really tough losses. One thing I learnt about last year is to enjoy the moment. I'm definitely going to enjoy this.”
Williams now heads to the US Open as an overwhelming favorite to win her seventh title in New York. She last lifted the winner’s trophy in 2014 and has reached the semifinals or better in her past seven appearances.