World number 1 Serena Williams has seemingly turned back the clock by completing a so-called ‘Serena Slam’ for the second time, having first completed the feat in 2003. By winning Wimbledon at the weekend, the American became holder of all four Grand Slam tournaments, tennis’s major events.
Having won the US Open last year, Williams needed first to win the Australian Open, traditionally the first Slam event of this year, followed by the French Open and Wimbledon to complete the set. She has, however, never completed a ‘calendar year Grand Slam’ by winning all four events in the same year. To achieve this rare accomplishment, Williams needs to retain the US Open title, and even at 33 (she will turn 34 exactly two weeks after this year’s US Open women’s final) it is hard to see who can get in her way.
Surprisingly given Britain’s less than stellar reputation in women’s tennis, it was Channel Islander Heather Watson that gave Serena her stiffest test at tennis’s most prestigious event. The 23-year-old, whose mother came to Britain from Papua New Guinea, was serving in the third round with two service breaks and needing two points to cause one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history before Williams managed to draw on her unparalleled resolve to bulldoze her way to victory.
After relatively routine wins over sister Venus and Victoria Azarenka, Williams then eased past world number two, Russian Maria Sharapova, who has never beaten her American nemesis since 2004 when she followed up a shock triumph as a 17-year-old in the 2004 Wimbledon final with a tour win in Los Angeles. In their seventeen meetings since, Williams has only needed a third set three times to overcome the Russian.
In the final, Williams’s slow start against number 20 seed Garbine Muguruza briefly hinted at an upset, but even operating at 75 percent, the five-time Wimbledon singles champion would not be denied.
The win puts Serena one Wimbledon ahead of sister Venus, who has played well enough this year to suggest she might conceivably have another major in her. Indeed it is tempting to suggest that if Serena never makes it past Margaret Court’s record 24 Grand Slams, it is only because Venus was in her way.
Venus has beaten Serena in two out of the eight Grand Slam finals the siblings have contested and has eliminated her younger sister a further three times in earlier rounds of Grand Slam tournaments where the draw failed to keep them apart. Venus also beat Serena, playing with Justin Gimelstob and Luis Lobo respectively, in their only meeting in a mixed doubles Grand Slam final, the French Open in 1998.
So, while there are many complicated reasons why Serena might never be universally regarded as the best female to ever swing a racquet, the detailed statistics should go some way towards removing all doubt. And few can argue that the notion of a player being world number one and holding all the Grand Slams 20 years after joining the tour is truly remarkable.
