San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Wimbledon: Serena loses to Halep in women’s final
WIMBLEDON, England — It was late in the first set of Serena Williams’ latest Grand Slam letdown when a British fan seated high in Centre Court, perhaps worried about getting full value for the price of his ticket, yelled, “Serena, wake up!”
Williams heard the shout. “I definitely wasn’t asleep,” she said.
But there was no changing the oneway flow of the Wimbledon women’s singles final against Simona Halep on Saturday.
Halep went on to a 62, 62 victory, managing the moment brilliantly to become the first Romanian to win a singles title at Wimbledon, the oldest of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
Williams finished with 26 unforced errors. Halep, astonishingly, finished with just three, and not because she was shying away from risk.
“I always have been intimidated a little bit when I faced Serena,” said Halep, who had won only one of her previous 10 matches against Williams. “She’s an inspiration for everyone and the model for everyone. Today I decided before the match that I’m going to focus on myself and on the final of a Grand Slam, not on her. That’s why I was able to play my best, to be relaxed and to be able to be positive and confident against her.”
That is certainly an easier mental challenge to conquer at this stage. Several years ago, Saturday’s result would have sent a major tremor through tennis.
Williams is a seventime Wimbledon and 23time Grand Slam singles champion and one of the most dominant figures that this mind game of a sport has seen with her blend of power, court coverage and mental toughness.
But the dynamic has changed now, perhaps for good.
Williams is undoubtedly the best player of this era and one of the greatest of all time, but at age 37, she is no longer a reliable closer. Saturday’s defeat was Williams’ third straight in a major final. All of them have come in straight sets in the past year as she has tried and failed to tie Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles titles.
Consider that she won 21 of her first 25 major finals, and lost five of her past seven.
She has played infrequently and been unable to win a title of any kind since she returned to the circuit in March 2018, six months after the difficult cesareansection birth of her daughter, Olympia.
“I feel like I’m still incredibly competitive or else I wouldn’t really be out here, per se,” Williams said. “For the most part, I feel like I’m on the right track. I’m just going in the right direction in terms of getting back to where I need to be.”
At 37, with her next birthday in September, she was the oldest women’s singles finalist at a Grand Slam tournament in the Open era.
Just being out there with a championship at stake is a major achievement considering all that Williams has been through. But she has also been unable to manage her nerves and control her shots when she needed to most.
Halep was the portrait of
focus and positive energy Saturday — just as Angelique Kerber, another gifted counterpuncher and defender, was in last year’s Wimbledon final, when she dominated Williams 63, 63.
But that score line, like this score line, was also a reflection of Williams’ shaky performance. After firing 19 aces in her reassuring semifinal rout of Barbora Strycova on Centre Court on Thursday, Williams hit only two aces against Halep.
Williams was again too tightly wound with Court’s record in reach, after hitting some legitimately high notes on her way to the final.
Halep, 27, won her first major singles title at the French Open last year after losing her first three Grand Slam finals.
Halep was outstanding in her first Wimbledon final, rebooting rallies with her foot speed and anticipation and switching from defense to offense in a flash, hitting her backhand down the line particularly well
“I’m very sure,” Halep said, “that was the best match of my life.”