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When she claimed Wimbledon yesterday, Serena Williams moved one step closer to greatness.
The most prestigious grand slam on the circuit became Williams’ 21st major and puts her just one grand slam short of Steffi Graf’s 22 open era major titles.
It also put her one grand slam closer to completing another Serena Slam – collecting all four major titles in succession – a feat she last achieved in 2002 and the early part of 2003.
She has already won the Australian Open and the French Open, and is on an incredible match-winning streak, losing just once in 39 matches this year.
It was not an easy path to the Wimbledon title for Williams.
She was given a major scare by 23-year-old British top seed Heather Watson, who had almost the entire centre court on its feet as she set out to achieve what looked almost impossible, in the Wimbledon third-round clash.
Williams had taken the first set comfortably at 6-2 and was on her way to an expected easy victory when Watson raised the level of her game.
She came back strongly and took the second set, causing massive excitement in the partisan British crowd that had packed centre court.
Watson went on to take a three-games-to-love lead, and even the most loyal of Williams’ fans began losing hope, believing she was on her way out of the tournament.
But Williams, renowned for digging deep, pulled off the impossible.
She then went on a sensational four-game winning streak. But when Watson broke her and took a five-games-to-four lead, hope again started fading as the young Brit prepared to serve for the match.
When it got to deuce, it looked all over, until Williams spectacularly turned things around and won the match 6-2 4-6 7-5 to much disbelief.
Williams went on to inflict another defeat – against Maria Sharapova in the semis – to set up yesterday’s final showdown with promising young Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza.
Some regard the contest between Williams and Sharapova as a rivalry, but having beaten the Russian for the 17th straight time on Thursday and collecting four times more grand slams, this cannot honestly be described as such.
At 18-2, it’s a one-sided affair.
By beating Muguruza 6-4 6-4, Williams has now proven that she has no equal in the current Women’s Tennis Association circuit and, at the age of 33, her equals have long retired from the game.
She is now only left with the US Open to complete an incredible year and to match Graf in the grand slam stakes.
But at the pace Williams is going, she might just surpass even that record.
