American Serena Williams captured her 14th Grand Slam title by winning the 2012 Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles Championships on Saturday, beating first-time Slam finalist Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. With the title win, Williams will rise to the fourth in the world’s rankings on Monday while Radwanska will rise to number two.
The win marked a remarkable comeback from a former top-ranked player, who, after winning the 2010 Wimbledon title – battled injuries ranging from a cut on her toe from a broken glass in a restaurant and life-threatening blood clots in her lungs that required surgery early last year. At the grasscourt season in 2011 – Williams was beaten in the second round in Eastbourne but reached the fourth round at the All England Club, a lackluster performance for a player in her caliber. However, she started erasing doubts of tennis fans everywhere when she made a spectacular run during the US hardcourts season by winning the US Open Series (with title wins in Canada and Stanford) and reaching the US Open 2011 final (losing to Stosur). She ended the season just barely outside of the world’s top 10.
Williams had a lukewarm start during the first quarter of the 2012 season – including a fourth-round loss at the Australian Open and a quarterfinal finish at Miami Open. But she sparkled during the claycourt season – with title wins at Charleston and Madrid. However, with almost all tennis analysts picking her as the Roland Garros 2012 champion, the American stumbled big time and loses the first round match to Virginie Razzano of France – the worst defeat for the 13-time Grand Slam champion in a major event.
But as always, Serena Williams can never be counted out when making comebacks. Just right after the Roland Garros tournament, Williams skipped the warm-up grasscourt events and at the All England Club, seeded sixth, she showed the world why she’s a four-time singles champion at Wimbledon, her powerful shots and her magnificent aces (posting more than 100 in total throughout the tournament) propelled her all the way to the Wimbledon 2012 win.
With a total of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, she now just four major titles behind tennis great Martina Navratilova. And the way she’s playing now, she might just have a shot to equal or overtake that record.
