She’d waited over a year for this moment – and suffered some surprising setbacks along the way – but at last Serena Williams could put all that behind her as she won her 22nd Grand Slam singles trophy and her seventh Wimbledon title.
Having lost to Roberta Vinci in New York, Angelique Kerber in Melbourne and Garbine Muguruza in Paris, the world No.1 produced a ruthlessly focused performance to beat Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in windy conditions on Centre Court.
The victory equals Steffi Graf’s Open Era record of 22 singles Slams, and leaves her two short of Margaret Court’s all time tally of 24.
“It’s been incredibly difficult not to think about it,” Williams said on court moments after victory. “I had two tries this year and lost to two great opponents, one of them being Angelique. It makes the victory even sweeter knowing how hard I had to work.”
And she didn’t stop there. Serena was back on Centre Court in the early evening where she and Venus won their sixth Wimbledon ladies’ doubles title – and 14th Grand Slam together - when they beat Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-4.
The Gentlemen’s Doubles final was the first all-French major men’s doubles final in the Open Era and it was the favourites Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut who came out on top.
They were too good for Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, winning 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-3 to claim their second Grand Slam as a team.
Heather Watson is still going strong in the Mixed Doubles after she and Henri Kontinen won their semi-final against Oliver Marach and Jelena Ostapenko 7-6(1), 6-3. They face Robert Farah and Anna-Lena Groenefeld in Sunday’s final.
Great Britain’s Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett were crowned Gentlemen’s Wheelchair Doubles champions when they beat French team Stephane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(6) amid wild scenes on Court 17.
The Ladies Wheelchair Singles title went to Jiske Griffioen who recovered well to beat fellow Dutchwoman Aniek Van Koot 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Russian 15-year-old Anastasia Potapova completed a British grass-court double when she added the girls’ singles title to the junior ITF event she won in Roehampton in the lead-up to Wimbledon.
No.4 seed Potapova finally wrapped up an emotional 6-4, 6-3 win over Ukraine’s No.7 seed Dayana Yastremska on her seventh match point.
Day 12 in numbers
- Serena moves to 22 Grand Slam singles titles, equalling Steffi Graf’s Open Era record. Margaret Court holds the all-time record with 24
- Serena now has seven Wimbledon singles titles – the same number as Graf and two fewer than all-time leader Martina Navratilova
- Serena moves to 86 match wins at Wimbledon (a record among active players), ten short of Chris Evert in second place. Navratilova leads on 120
- Serena moves to 304 Grand Slam match wins, second only to Navratilova in the Open Era who won 306
- Serena has won 32 of her last 37 singles finals
- Serena will remain world No.1 on Monday for a 301st non-consecutive week, and a 178th consecutive week
- Kerber is the sixth German woman to reach a major singles final joining Helga Niessen Masthoff, Sylvia Hanika, Anke Huber, Sabine Lisicki and Graf
- Kerber and Graf are the only German women to reach more than one Grand Slam singles final
- Kerber will become world No.2 on Monday, a career-high ranking
- Herbert and Mahut’s victory marks only the second time that a French pair has won the men's doubles at Wimbledon in the Open Era, repeating Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra’s achievement in 2007
- Serena and Venus have won 14 doubles majors together. Navratilova and Pam Shriver lead as a team in the all-time standings on 20
