Tennis News

Serena Williams won Wimbledon 2015 to complete a 2nd Serena Slam (Non-Calendar Slam)

Serena Williams is three-fourths of the way to one of the greatest accomplishments in tennis history. The 33-year-old won the Wimbledon 2015 title with a 6-4, 6-4 score over the inspired 21-year-old Garbine Muguruza. This was her sixth Wimbledon title, her 21st Slam overall.

This earned the American her second Serena Slam, as the defending champion of all four major titles, and it also marked the first time in her legendary career that she won the first three majors of the year. In less than two months in New York, Serena will be aiming to be the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win the Calendar Slam. Also up for grabs at the U.S. Open? Serena’s 22nd Grand Slam title, which would tie her with Graf for first on the list of career Slams in the Open Era.

Over the next two months, this is the most important sports story to watch. The Serena vs. Steffi debate for the moniker of “greatest of all time” has been raging for years, long before Serena was in reach of the German’s trophy haul. But now, with Serena so close to achieving these two huge milestones on the precipice of her 34th birthday, and with two Serena Slams on her resume more than 12 years apart, the debate is close to being over.

If Serena can come away with the victory in New York, she will be the undisputed GOAT.  Some experts believed the dispute was already over before this fortnight began. Chris Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam champion herself, told Time last month that Serena’s 20-4 record (now 21-4) in major finals and her dominance over the other top women of her generation give her an edge over Graf:

After watching her matches and watching her closely, these players get close, they’re doing really well, and then she’ll get to another level where she slaps winners and she starts acing people. It’s not one level. All of a sudden, she’s up two or three levels better than the field. It’s not about the other women. It’s about how good Serena is.

Pam Shriver, Evert’s ESPN colleague and a former WTA player herself, agrees with that sentiment. “I include her doubles record, her Olympic record, even throw in the mixed doubles, her longevity, her weeks at No. 1, the oldest player to ever be No. 1,” Shriver told Susie Arth of espnW after the French Open. “When you throw all that together, she’s better than Graf and better than Margaret Court.”

With a victory at Flushing Meadows in Sep, Serena will tie Steffi Graf at 22 majors (the Open-Era Record). She will also complete the 1st Calendar Slam since Steffi’s Calendar Golden Slam in 1988.

Of course, it’s worth noting that there are plenty of categories where Serena still trails Graf. She only has 247 weeks at No. 1, compared to Graf’s 377, and she has only finished as the year-end No. 1 four times, compared to Graf’s eight. However, Serena is still No. 1 and counting, so she’s sure to narrow that gap a considerable amount before all is said and done.

Serena also significantly trails Steffi in stats such as number of overall matches won (Graf 900; Serena 723) and singles titles (Graf 107; Serena 68). But the game is so much more physical these days and the fields are so much deeper that we’re likely never to see individual numbers like Graf’s again. (For some perspective, Martina Navratilova won 1,442 matches and 167 singles finals.)

The most important numbers in tennis are Slams, and that is where Serena is making the biggest impact in 2015 thanks to her longevity. She won the Australian Open despite not playing her best tennis and despite an onslaught from Maria Sharapova in the final. She won the French Open despite having the flu and being down a set and a break on multiple occasions.  This week at Wimbledon, after surviving a scare from Brit Heather Watson in the third round, Serena was faced with some of the greatest players of her generation back to back to back: Venus Williams in the fourth round, Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals and Sharapova in the semis. In those three matches combined, she hit 40 aces and only five double-faults, and she hit 111 winners with only 40 unforced errors. She wasn’t quite as sharp in the final, but despite her obvious nerves and the power and competitiveness of her Spanish opponent, Serena came through to win her first Wimbledon title since 2012.

Serena defeated Spain’s Garbine Muguruza to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish for the 1st time since 2012 (her 6th Wimbledon title overall).

Now she gets to turn her focus to her next task, making the ultimate history at her hometown Slam. A Calendar Slam and No. 22 will make all of those other comparisons insignificant. So the question remains: Can she do it? Talent-wise, absolutely. She is playing the best tennis of her career. And while the pressure could potentially overwhelm her, Serena seems to have the perfect team around her to keep her calm and focused. “I’m having so much fun out here, I never dreamt I’d be out here still, let alone winning still,” she said during the trophy presentation at Wimbledon after her victory. “Every day is a pleasure.”

Serena’s greatness has long been an indisputable fact, but finally, with her late-career surge, she’s racking up the numbers that her talent and work ethic deserve. Her doubt-defying resume is almost complete.

So keep your calendar open this summer, particularly for the weeks surrounding Labour Day. We’re about to witness something special.

Following the magical Wimbledon Championships, players dispersed around the world to take part in their nation’s team for the World Cup of tennis, the Davis Cup tournament. The quarter-finals brought with them some interesting results, as Australia is through to the semi-finals, as is Belgium and Great Britain – teams that do not usually make it this far into the draw.

Check out the complete results below:

World Group Results:

GREAT BRITAIN def. FRANCE 3-1
Venue: The Queen’s Club, London, GBR (grass – outdoor)

Gilles Simon (FRA) d. James Ward (GBR) 64 64 61
Andy Murray (GBR) d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 75 76(10) 62
Andy Murray/Jamie Murray (GBR) d. Nicolas Mahut/Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 46 63 76(5) 61
Andy Murray (GBR) def. Gilles Simon (FRA) 46 76(5) 63 60

BELGIUM defeated CANADA 5-0
Venue: Sportpark Krokodiel, Middelkerke (Ostend), BEL (clay – outdoor)

Steve Darcis (BEL) d. Frank Dancevic (CAN) 36 61 75 63
David Goffin (BEL) d. Filip Peliwo (CAN) 64 64 62
Ruben Bemelmans/Kimmer Coppejans (BEL) d. Daniel Nestor/Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 75 36 64 63

AUSTRALIA def. KAZAKHSTAN  3-2
Venue: Marrara Sporting Complex, Darwin, AUS (grass – outdoor)

Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) d. Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) 64 63 63
Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) d. Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 76(5) 67(2) 76(5) 64
Samuel Groth/Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) d. Andrey Golubev/Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) 64 76(4) 62
Sam Groth (AUS) v Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 6-3 7-6(6) 4-6 7-6(6)
Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) v Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) 7-6(2) 6-2 6-3

ARGENTINA defeated SERBIA 3-1
Venue: Tecnopolis, Buenos Aires, ARG (clay – indoor)

Leonardo Mayer (ARG) d. Filip Krajinovic (SRB) 64 62 61
Federico Delbonis (ARG) d. Viktor Troicki (SRB) 26 26 64 64 62
Carlos Berlocq/Leonardo Mayer (ARG) d. Viktor Troicki/Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 62 64 61

An interesting semi-final contest takes place on Saturday afternoon at the international Tennis Hall of Fame Championships, as towering Croat Ivo Karlovic clashes with young American Jack Sock for the fourth time on the professional tour. Karlovic leads the head-to-head series 2-1, yet Sock won their most recent meeting on clay in Houston last season. This will mark their first meeting on a grass cour

Up first in Newport, the tournament’s second seeded Ivo Karlovic defeated Dustin Brown in straight sets to advance to the semi-final stage of the tournament. He fired 23 aces en route to the 7-6(3), 6-3 win.

“When a guy hits 23 aces and doesn’t let you see any second serves, it’s going to be impossible to break him,” said Brown. “Then he had four aces, one return winner and one service winner in the tie-break. So there really wasn’t much I could do. Even in the second set. I double-faulted after he hit three return winners to get broken. In any other service game I could double-fault and nothing would have happened. You expect this going into the match, but it’s still very tough to lose a match like this.”

In a much shorter outing later on in the day, Jack Sock reached the semi-final round when his opponent Jan Hernych retired with a knee injury during the second game of the match.

This marks the fourth time that Karlovic and Sock will meet on the professional tour, with Karlovic leading the series 2-1. The Croat won the first encounter 3-6, 7-6(8), 6-2 last year in Indian Wells and followed up with a 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-3 victory last season in the Memphis quarter-final round. However, Sock found his way into the series when he beat the towering foe in straight sets on the clay courts in Houston. It will be interesting to see who holds the advantage on grass, as both men have played impressive tennis thus far.

May Zhao interviewed some of the key figures from the world of tennis. Stevegtennis brings you the short version of the interview.
1) How do you see the situation with Tennis in Asia at this point and talk to us about what you see is happening now and possibly in the future? Can you make any good suggestions?

Melissa Pine, WTA Director
Women’s tennis in Asia is in such a great position and the growth on the sport has been phenomenal. We opened our Beijing office in 2008 with two tournaments in China, and will host a record nine WTA Premier and International tournaments in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan during the 2016 season We have a full-fledged Asian Swing after the US Open and our year-end crown-jewel event the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global in Singapore. When we decided to host our event in Singapore, we saw a great opportunity to increase our presence in Southeast Asia, which has such huge potential.
We have seen through our WTA Future Stars activities in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand how, given the opportunity, kids of all ages love playing tennis and learning from WTA Stars such as Caroline Wozniacki and Tamarine Tanasugarn. The following one in China will be hosted in early October this year. In 2014 we invited 12 markets to participate in the tournament and this year we have already expanded to 17 markets, which highlights the desire for the local tennis associations to have access to more regional tournaments to help develop their young players. Through grassroots developmental programs like the WTA Future Stars we are working closely with the local associations to build and develop their youth programmes, as ultimately these are the next generation of players and fans.

2) What do you see as being the next step for Chinese Tennis and whom do you see coming up behind Li Na as the best genuine prospects for the future?

Li Na was a fantastic catalyst for boosting the popularity of tennis in China and across Asia as a whole. We saw the huge potential within China, which was part of the reason by WTA establishing the Beijing office. The Chinese Tennis Association has invested heavily in their infrastructure and by working closely with sponsors has managed to bring more tournaments to China, which in turn increases public exposure to women’s tennis and players.
Peng Shuai is one of China’s leading players and ranked World No.1 as a doubles player when she headed into the WTA Finals in 2014. Looking to the future, there are several Rising Stars on the WTA Circuit that are competing consistently and on the cusp of breaking into the top-50 and higher.
At the WTA Finals we have the WTA Rising Stars Invitational where fans can vote for their favorite player to play at year-end tournament. Zheng Saisai was one of those four WTA Rising Stars who came to Singapore in 2014 and was extremely popular with the fans so we see a bright future ahead for her. We also see several promising names that are on the verge of cracking the Top 100. Liu Fangzhou was a runner-up last year to Peng Shuai at Nanchang last year and Wang Yafan won her maiden WTA title with Chen Liang in doubles at Kuala Lumpur in 2015. With these ladies on the tour and greater support for tennis in China, we are hopeful of seeing more Chinese players rise up the ranks in the near future.

3) What do you see as the situation with tennis in Asia at this time and talk to us about how you see/have seen them developing in Wimbledon? Japan, Korea, China?

Mick Desmond Commercial Director of the AELTC:

We have seen the interest in tennis grow strongly throughout most of Asia. We have great media partners in South East Asia with Fox Asia and NHK and WowWow in Japan. They cover all the matches from Wimbledon live and this has grown our audiences dramatically. It also helps when there are players from within a country. In China we have also seen both the interest and our audiences growing.

The world No. 1 player Novak Djokovic showed exactly why he reigns atop the ATP World Tour when he outlasted rival Roger Federer to defend the Wimbledon title. This final was a repeat of last year’s battle for the Championships crown.

It was a contest that lasted four sets, one less than the previous year. Federer lost the opening round yet managed to rebound in the second set following one of the great tiebreaks of the 21st Century. However, from there, it was all Djokovic as he raised his game to a supreme level and dominated on serve to defeat the seven-time champion 7-6(1), 6-7(10), 6-4, 6-3.

“It’s a great privilege to play against Roger, who is a great champion,” Djokovic told BBC television on-court. “He has done so much for our sport on and off the court. It’s a great honour to play him again. I was aware coming onto the court, that Roger would play his best when it matters the most. He pushes you to limits.”

It was Djokovic’s 54th title in his career (9th Grand Slam trophy) and moved him to 48-3 this season. Federer, however, was unable to secure his elusive 18th Grand Slam title.

“Novak not only played great today, but also this year, last year and the year before that! Well done, Novak, you deserved it. At the end he was rock solid. I didn’t play bad myself, so I can be very happy. That’s the way it goes. Once more, it has been a privilege to play here.”

The Swiss No. 1 moved to 40-7 this season and will take several weeks off before the start of the North American Swing ahead of the US Open.

Not only did Roger Federer dispel many doubters and naysayers with his remarkable fortnight at the Wimbledon Championships, he also got the support of former champion and tennis legend Bjorn Borg, who believes Sunday will mark Federer’s eighth Wimbledon title.

The Swiss star arrived at his 10th Wimbledon final with a flawless performance against Andy Murray in their Friday semi-final. It was a serving master-class from Federer, who won a hefty 86% of his first service points and struck 56 winners and 20 aces to close out the match in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5, 6-4.

“That’s the best I’ve seen him play for many years, the best for maybe 10 years,” Borg told ESPN after Federer’s 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Murray. “He’s serving so well. It was great tennis.”

So convinced was Borg of Federer’s performance, that he has little doubt that the Swiss star should be considered the favourite, even though Djokovic holds the higher ranking and defeated him at this event last year.

“On Sunday, Federer will definitely be the favourite to win. He is playing well, moving well, he was doing everything he was supposed to. He is hitting the ball so cleanly and playing with a lot of confidence.

“It’s going to be interesting to see with Novak. I’m really surprised that Roger is playing as well as he is. Andy wasn’t playing badly, and it was a great match, but Federer was too good today. This match was an unbelievably good match.”

For the 40th time in their storied rivalry, the top two players in the world Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will cross paths on the professional tour, this time in a highly anticipated rematch at the Wimbledon Championships Final. For Federer, it is an opportunity to win his 18th Grand Slam title, and first in three years since he was crowned champion in 2012, while Djokovic remains on quest to defend the title he snatched from the Swiss during their memorable final last season. Federer leads the head-to-head series 20-19.

Roger Federer arrived at a remarkable 10th Wimbledon final with a flawless performance against Andy Murray in their Friday semi-final. It was a serving master-class from Federer, who won a hefty 86% of his first service points and struck 56 winners and 20 aces to close out the match in straight sets, 7-5, 7-5, 6-4.

“Andy’s been playing very well for the season,” Federer told the BBC following the match. “There is so much expectation riding on the match. I’m unbelievably happy. I played so well in the biggest occasion today.

“I’ve been serving very well for the entire tournament. I wasn’t broken against one of the best returners. I kept the pressure up and went for my shots. I mixed it up like I usually do and kept pushing forward and staying focused. It all worked out really well.”

Novak Djokovic strolled into the final of the Wimbledon Championships with a straight sets win against No. 21 seed Richard Gasquet in the first semi-final on Centre Court. He won the match 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 to advance his head-to-head against the Frenchman to 12-1.

“The first set was really close,” said Djokovic. “I thought Richard played some really good tennis, especially from the backhand side. It was really difficult for me at times to play any kind of ball to his backhand side because he was really going for it, especially down the line. He made a lot of winners. He used the chipped backhand, slice variety as well… Winning the first set tie-break was psychologically very helpful for the rest of the match.”

The latest chapter in the remarkable rivalry between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer will be written on Sunday afternoon at the All England Club, as the two top competitors will cross paths once again in the final of the Wimbledon Championships. They’ve already met three this; Federer won the Dubai title while Djokovic lifted the Indian Wells and Rome trophies. Now they will meet once again, yet the stakes are far greater. Federer is in absolutely remarkable form, and if he can potentially carry forth the momentum from his near-perfect performance against Andy Murray, Federer will be closer than ever before to lifting a historic eighth title at Wimbledon.

For the fourth time at a Grand Slam event, Serena Williams and Garbine Muguruza will meet, this time in the final of the 2015 Wimbledon Championships. With the current head-to-head record at 2-1 for Williams, this has the potential to be a riveting match-up on Saturday. Muguruza has beaten Williams before and will be keen to do that once again en route to her first Major title.

In a match that was not far different from her previous 16 consecutive wins, Serena Williams defeated Maria SHarapova in straight sets to secure her place in the final at the All England Club. Williams hit almost twice as many winners as unforced errors, which gave her the 6-2, 6-4 victory.

“I’m really excited,” the World No.1 told the BBC right after the match. “I was a little nervous out there. The semifinals of Wimbledon – it’s been a long time since I’ve been this far in this tournament!

“I think Maria played really well. She stepped up her game, and I was able to step mine up as well. And it’s the semifinals of Wimbledon – you never want to lose, and you want to do the best you can.”

Muguruza found her way to her first Grand Slam final when she downed 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanksa in a three-set thriller. It looked as though the match would be a one-sided affair yet Radwanksa managed to rally back and force a decider. In the end, Muguruza found the crucial break and ended the match 6-2, 3-6, 6-3..

“It’s the best final you can play,” Muguruza said. “Serena in the Wimbledon final is the hardest match you can have. If you want to win a Grand Slam, when you dream, you say, ‘I want Serena in the final.’

“She’s one of the best players in all these years. So it’s obviously the best challenge to have.”

Williams and Muguruza split their past two encounters on the tour – both at Grand Slam events before Williams snuck into the lead with a win in the fourth round of the Australian Open this season. At last year’s French Open, the Spaniard avenged the loss with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over the former champion in the tournament’s second round. While that is a promising sign, Williams is certainly the better hard court player, and unless she plays at a level well below her usual standard, she should find her way to edge one step closer to completing the Serena Slam and the Calendar Slam.

“She’s beaten me before, and she’s improved too,” Williams said. “It’s not going to be an easy match.”