Angelique Kerber was not about to be overwhelmed by the setting or the stakes in this Wimbledon final. She knew exactly what to expect — and what to do — against Serena Williams.
Two years after losing to Williams with a title on the line at Center Court, Kerber came through. So steady, so patient, so accurate throughout, she never really gave Williams much of a chance this time, putting together a 6-3, 6-3 victory on Saturday for her first championship at the All England Club and third major overall.
“I think it’s the experience. You have to go through all the things — the good things, the bad things — and then you need to learn,” said Kerber, the first German to win Wimbledon since Steffi Graf in 1996.
Photo: AP
“I know that against Serena, I have to play my best tennis, especially in the important moments,” said Kerber, who won the Australian Open and US Open in 2016, but was runner-up to Williams at Wimbledon that season.
“Angelique played really well,” Williams said. “She played out of her mind.”
Kerber made only five unforced errors the entire match, 19 fewer than Williams. Perhaps more impressive was this: She broke Williams in four of nine service games.
In doing so, Kerber prevented Williams from claiming an eighth title at Wimbledon and 24th from all Grand Slam tournaments, which would have equaled Margaret Court’s record. As things stand, Williams holds the mark for the half-century of professional tennis, one ahead of Graf.
The final started more than two hours late, because they had to wait for the end of Novak Djokovic’s five-set victory over Rafael Nadal in a men’s semi-final that was suspended the night before.
Djokovic was to play Kevin Anderson yesterday — with the first serve in the final due at about press time last night — who won his semi-final against John Isner 26-24 in the fifth set on Friday night.
Nadal said it was an error to keep the Center Court roof closed as he lost an epic semi-final.
Nadal was defeated 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (11/9), 3-6, 10-8 in the second-longest semi-final ever played at the tournament, at 5 hours, 15 minutes.
It was a second day of epic drama at the All England Club after Anderson needed 6 hours, 36 minutes to beat Isner.
That set the record for the longest semi-final at the tournament and became the second-longest Grand Slam singles match ever played.
Djokovic and Nadal’s match was started under the roof and finished under it on Saturday, despite clear blue skies and temperatures hovering close to 30°C.
Asked if it was logical to have the roof closed, the world No. 1 said: “No, but I will not talk more about this. If I talk about it, then you are going to write about this, and I don’t want you to write about this today.”
He said that his semi-final should have been played before the Anderson-Isner match on Friday.
That semi-final only finished just before 8pm, making it impossible for Nadal and Djokovic to finish before the 11pm curfew.
“It’s true that the schedule was a little bit tight knowing that the first match was between two big servers,” said the 32-year-old. “Of course you can’t predict that they play that long, but, yeah, knowing that, maybe would be better if they play us first at 1[pm], that’s all.”
In the boys’ singles, Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin defeated Jack Draper of the UK in the final yesterday.
Tseng, who turns 17 next month, won 6-1, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4 in 2 hours, 5 minutes, hitting eight aces to five.
Tseng reached the final with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over China’s Mu Tao, needing just 1 hour, 1 minute to dispatch his opponent.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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