Serena Williams defeated Angelique Kerber in straight sets today to take the Wimbledon title and join Steffi Graf in the history books as the biggest winners of the Open era.
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The win was also the second consecutive victory at Wimbledon for Williams, and the seventh of her career. She’s currently the #1-ranked female tennis player in the world.
“I love playing her,” Williams said of Kerber in a post-match interview with ESPN (via NPR). “She’s such a great opponent….It makes the victory even sweeter to know how hard I worked for it.”
Feeling 22.#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/qjeNNAWCb2
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 9, 2016
Today’s Wimbledon win represtend Williams’s twenty-second career Masters victory.
Williams won 7-5, 6-3. Her victory — particularly in straight sets — was particularly significant because Williams had come up short in her previous two Grand Slam attempts this year, falling to Kerber at the Australian Open and Garbine Muguruza at the French Open.
The media-friendly Williams has proven to be a great asset to U.S. tennis since she and her sister Venus became household names twenty years ago. Besides being some of the most dominant players of their generation (and possibly all time), the sisters have appeared on TV and in movies, been open to publicity stunts like a “Battle of the Sexes” match back when they were teenagers, and creating a media circus around two highly-ranked siblings playing against each other for a number of titles over the years. Serena is 16-11 all time against her sister.
In addition to the singles title, Serena Williams will be competing alongside Venus Williams in the doubles championship later today.
