WIMBLEDON

of the 2016 final. Williams won that match in two tight sets. It is also a chance for Williams to equal Margaret Court’s longstanding record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

“Seeing her back, it’s great,” said Kerber, who has lost six of eight previous matches against Williams. “I know that she is always pushing you to the limits.”

If Williams can tie Court’s record, where might it rank on her list of career achievements?

“Top of the heap,” said Chris Evert, the former Wimbledon champion and No. 1.

“She’s carrying a message and on a platform that is so much bigger than a tournament or a sport,” said Jill Smoller, Williams’ longtime agent. “This is about people — male, female, black, white, rich, poor — that are on the floor and don’t know if they can get up and do anything, and it’s about nothing is impossible.”

In the past, Williams has often looked like she was exorcising personal demons in the latter stages of major tournaments — the power in her strokes matched by the fire in her eyes.

The grunts and ferocious focus were still there Thursday against Goerges, who put up more resistance than the final score might indicate. But when the German’s last shot soared long, Williams did not flex her muscles and show a sense of relief or release.

This time, she looked toward her coach Patrick Mouratoglou, family and friends quite calmly and smiled.

“I don’t even know how to feel because I literally didn’t expect to do this well in my fourth tournament back in 16 months,” she said. “I just feel when I don’t have anything to lose, I can play so free.”

Being free of pressure has helped Kerber, too. In 2016, she beat Williams in the 2016 Australian Open final before losing to her at Wimbledon. Two months later, Kerber won the U.S. Open and rose to the No. 1 ranking.

But the expectations that came with backing up the best season of her career weighed heavily on Kerber. In 2017, she failed to advance past the fourth round at any major, and her ranking dropped to No. 21.

But under her new coach, Wim Fissette, Kerber, 30, has returned to form and is back in a Grand Slam final after a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Jelena Ostapenko.

After Ostapenko took a 3-2 lead in the first set, Kerber won the next seven games to take control of the match. Ostapenko gave her plenty of help, piling up 36 unforced errors to Kerber’s seven over the course of the match.