Wimbledon, England
Every tennis finalist suffers from nerves. No matter your experience or longevity, there’s no escaping it. At Wimbledon, Centre Court looks magical and the crowd is close—and that’s tense. The last match of the tournament means you’re one win from a title, or one loss from being disgusted. Your shots may start too flat, or not quite as accurate as you would like. Your serve might miss more. This happens to everyone: Nerves are normal and inescapable at first, until you find your place. But sometimes, like with Venus Williams in Saturday’s Wimbledon final, the nerves last way too long—or never go away at all.
Williams looked as tense as she could be as she nearly took the lead and then fell apart against the new Wimbledon champion, Garbiñe Muguruza, who won the final 7-5, 6-0. At 5-4 Williams had two set points in her favor as Muguruza served, but she couldn’t win one—not even in a 19-shot rally. Once Muguruza survived that game she broke Williams’s serve and thrived. She lost just 12 points in the second set, which lasted a mere 26 minutes. Williams’s coach, David Witt, explained how Williams went so wrong so quickly.
“I don’t think she ever settled in,” said her coach, David Witt. “After like the first four to six games I thought maybe she would settle in and the nerves would go away. It just seemed like she wasn’t comfortable out there.”
Everyone knew this wouldn’t be easy, and not just because Muguruza had played so well leading up to the final. Since she won her last Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2008, Williams hasn’t had an opportunity as promising as this year. Her sister Serena, who is pregnant, skipped the event. And the other women—as talented as they are—were beatable. For a 37-year-old, it was hard to see a better chance.
It was not to be. Williams’s fans probably looked away and cringed in the second set. Instead of sticking with the same style she employed in the intense first set, Williams started to play with more aggression. In tennis, rapid transition from one style to another is known as panic. Williams went for more pace on her strokes and charged the net. She tried to end points sooner and succeeded—unfortunately, the solution was her losing rapidly. Her serve failed her, too. In the second set, Williams didn’t win a single second serve (0-5) and won only six of 15 first serves (40 percent). That’s just six of 20 service points won in a set. Muguruza, relaxed with intent, dominated.
“She played top tennis, so I have to give her credit for just playing a better match,” Williams said. “She played amazing.”
Muguruza has done that before. Last year, she beat Serena Williams in the French Open final to win her first Grand Slam title. She has struggled since then, but that’s not unusual for Muguruza, who crushes the ball and, at times, misses too often. Her backhand, though, usually shines as much as any in the sport. Against Williams on Saturday, Muguruza won 13 of 22 shots that were served to her backhand, a high number. She said she couldn’t have played better.
“I came thinking, I’m prepared, I feel good,” Muguruza said. “During the tournament and the matches, I was feeling better and better. Every match, I was increasing my level.”
Muguruza is the only woman ever to beat both Venus and her sister Serena in a Grand Slam final. Think about it: These two have been around for more than two decades and still they are the stars of tennis. Even at age 37, Venus might continue. But you can’t blame Muguruza for saying fresh results are not a bad thing.
“We want new names and new faces, so c’mon,” she said. Muguruza’s name isn’t new, but now it is certainly big.
