Decade's Best: 2010 Wimbledon

In 2010, the question at Wimbledon was, "Why does the Serena cross the road?"

Answer: (Of course) To get to the other slam.



==NEWS & NOTES==After closing out the 2000's with Wimbledon title #3 in 2009, Serena Williams did it again a year later, winning back-to-back titles in London for the second time (2002-03) in her career. Her '10 Ladies title came without dropping a set (her fourth such run), as she became the first woman to pick up a 13th career slam crown in seventeen years (Steffi Graf at Wimbledon in 1993), and rarely had she been more dominant. Williams lost just ten games in the first three rounds, won tie-break sets in the Round of 16 (vs. Sharapova) and SF (vs. Kvitova), and then in the final she allowed just two points in the match on her first serve (and three points on serve at all in the 2nd set) to Russian Vera Zvonareva. The win gave her five titles in the last eight majors, as she and her sister Venus had combined to claim nine women's titles at the last eleven Wimbledons.

During the fortnight, Serena even got to meet Queen Elizabeth, who visited the All-England for the first time in over three decades on Day 4 (June 24th).


While Serena seemed on top of the world and set to dominate yet another decade as the AELTC closed its gates for the summer, she wouldn't play another slam match for a year after stepping on broken glass at a night club in Germany a few days after the final, resulting in injuries that ended her season. The following March, she was rushed to an emergency room after a hematoma and pulmonary embolism (likely linked to the previous injury) that proved to be life-threatening. It'd be two years before she'd win career slam #14.

Once again, it would come at Wimbledon.
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Maiden slam finalist Zvonareva, 25, had defeated two former #1's (Jankovic and Clijsters) en route to becoming the sixth different member (following Myskina, Dementieva, Sharapova, Kuznetsova and Safina) of the Original Hordette generation to reach a slam singles final. She'd also play for the U.S. Open title later that summer, losing to Kim Clijsters in the final. Since the '10 season, no Russian other than Maria Sharapova (w/ 6 additional appearances) has reached a major final.

Later on the same day as the women's singles final, Zvonareva joined with countrywoman Elena Vesnina to play in the doubles championship. She lost there, as well.

Zvonareva would reach a career-high #2 in October of 2010, but has never done better than a 3rd Round result at Wimbledon in the nearly nine years since, a period of time during which she's missed a total of nineteen majors while taking various hiatuses from tennis to deal with injuries, as well as becoming a mother.
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There were an overabundance of "name" match-ups during the second week of the 2010 Wimbledon, from S.Williams/Sharapova to Henin/Clijsters, from Li/Radwanska to Serena/Li and, in their first (and ultimately a rare, even while they might be considered the two most prevalent faces of the decade at SW19) Wimbledon face-off: Serena and Petra Kvitova.

In the 4th Round, Williams defeated Sharapova 7-6(9)/6-4, her fifth consecutive win over the Russian since losing to her twice in 2004 (in the Wimbledon and WTA Championships finals), and in their first meeting on grass in six years. If nothing else, while this and most of their other match-ups since '04 haven't produced much drama (Williams has won them all), the atmosphere was ripe for a classic tie-break between the two.


During the 20-point seesaw battle (their first ever TB), both produced early aces, then Williams took a 3-1 lead after Sharapova (perhaps as an aftereffect from her shoulder surgery) didn't attempt an overhead shot at the net, then saw her swing volley blasted back past her for a winner by Serena. Sharapova then ran off four straight points, taking a 5-3 lead with a crosscourt forehand off the tape. Williams staved off two set points, then couldn't secure her own first. After Sharapova's third SP came and went, she saved Williams' second with a good second serve. But a DF gave Williams a third SP, on which she fired an ace to win 11-9. It was the closest Serena came to dropping a set all tournament. Williams broke Sharapova for 2-1 in the 2nd and held the advantage until the match's conclusion.

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The 25th match-up between Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters turned out to be the last in their head-to-head series.


Henin opened up the Round of 16 match (their earliest meeting in a tournament since 2001, and only the second ever prior to the QF stage) with a dominating 6-2 1st set victory, but wilted as the match wore on after falling and injury her elbow. Clijsters' win improved her record to to 3-0 (all three setters) vs. her countrywoman in '10, the first full season (up til that point, at least) since both Belgians had come out of retirement to resume their careers. Henin had won eight of their final eleven match-ups prior to both leaving the game. The 2-6/6-2/6-3 win, her first over Henin in a major since 2002, gave Clijsters a final 13-12 edge in the series.


Soon after, Henin announced that she'd miss eight weeks of action due to the injury, which was eventually judged to be a partial ligament tear that ended her season early. Still, she won the tour's Comeback Player of the Year award for 2010.

Since her good first-month-back results (Brisbane and AO finals), Henin's results had been good (she won titles on clay and grass, and posted two slam 4th Round results), but things just hadn't been the same. She usually looked fully invested, except for when she looked like she really didn't know what she wanted to be invested in. Often, both Henins were on display during the same match as she attempted to be more "forwardly aggressive" by charging the net far more often than she had in her first career stint. It was a successful strategy, but at times the efforts appeared forced and anything but natural, as one could almost see her computing inside her head what coach Carlos Rodriguez had urged her to do during practice rather than *innately* knowing her next move. As a result, the natural flow of Henin's original game remained missing from the "new" version.

After losing in the 3rd Round of the Australian Open in 2011, Henin retired for good, citing continued issues with the elbow, which had still not fully healed. Here is Backspin's 2011 tribute post upon her final goodbye.
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There were a pair of surprise slam semifinalists at the '10 Wimbledon, as then-largely-unknown 20-year old Czech Petra Kvitova (#62) had survived five match points (and a 4-0 3rd set deficit) to defeat Kaia Kanepi 4-6/7-6(8)/8-6 in the QF and stake her claim to being the next young power player who'd attempt to climb into the general tour conversation; while Tsvetana Pironkova (#82) knocked off Venus Williams 2 & 3, four and a half years after she'd first made a name for herself by upsetting Venus at the Australian Open.


Perhaps *the* "off-brand" nightmare opponent for Venus during her career, the Bulgarian's variety of slices and spins forced Venus to generate her own pace, then Pironkova would then continually step in to cut off Williams' awkward shots and whack them back for winners. The win would turn out to be the first of *two* consecutive (2011 QF) wins by Pironkova over Williams at Wimbledon.



While Pironkova would lose to Zvonareva, Kvitova's win gave her the chance to test herself (in her words) "in the Serena." While her big game seemed to give her a shot, and she indeed led 4-2 in the 1st set, the Czech fell to a very in-form Williams 7-6/6-2.


A year later, Kvitova would win the Wimbledon title, fully announcing her presence as she quickly became *the* ongoing non-Williams force of the decade at the All-England Club, with her game (when in top flight, which unfortunately wasn't *all* the time, bringing all-time tennis greats to their feet with praise and awe for the lefty). Still, she's (so far) only added one additional SW19 trophy (in 2014) to her resume in the 2010's even while most fully expected early on that she might dominate Centre Court in something at least resembling a Serena-esque fashion. For various reasons ranging from illness to poor form to an off-court home invasion that made her unprepared for a deep slam run, Kvitova has rarely been able to capture the lightning-in-a-bottle SW19 moments that most predicted would shape her ongoing legacy.


After they'd also faced off at the 2010 AO, what was hoped to be the decade's biggest Wimbledon rivalry never materialized, either. Kvitova and Williams met again in the Wimbledon QF in 2012 (w/ Serena winning), but have yet to do so since in the tournament (or in any major). They've only played once at all since 2015.
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When Serena Williams won the singles title, her earlier defeat of Li Na in the QF completed something of a non-calendar "unGrand Slam" for the Chinese woman, as it marked the fourth straight major at which she'd lost to the eventual champion, following on the heels of defeats by Kim Clijsters ('09 U.S.), Serena again ('10 AO) and Francesca Schiavone ('10 RG). Li's loss to Kateryna Bondarenko in the 1st Round at Flushing Meadows ended the odd slam streak two months later.
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Coming off a semifinal run at Roland Garros, two-time slam finalist and Olympic Gold medalist (2008) Elena Dementieva saw her 46-slam appearance streak (the longest on tour) end due to a calf injury. The Russian would announce her immediate retirement after losing her final round robin match at the WTA Championships in November, later revealing that she'd decided at the start of the year that 2010 would be her final season.

Elsewhere, *both* of the Roland Garros finalists -- Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur -- exited Wimbledon in the 1st Round. Schiavone was the First Seed Out, falling to Vera Dushevina, while Stosur lost in straight sets to qualifier Kaia Kanepi.

21-year old 2005 Wimbledon girls champ Aga Radwanska produced her fourth Round of 16 or better result in her first five Wimbledon MD appearances. She'd go on to do it six more times in her 13-year career at SW19, reaching the final in 2012 and playing in two semis in '13 and '15.

Marion Bartoli, previously a finalist in '07, reached her second Wimbledon 4th Round. She'd win the Ladies' title three years later in her final slam appearance. Meanwhile, Angelique Kerber notched her first career MD win in the event, reaching the 3rd Round in her eleventh MD appearance in a major. It would take the German eight more tries to win the Ladies title.


Mirjana Lucic played in her first Wimbledon MD match 2000 (and first at any major since 2002), losing to Victoria Azarenka. The Croatian had reached the semifinals at the event in 1999 at age 17, then ultimately was essentially absent from the sport for years, playing only sparingly after a harrowing personal story that saw her and her family flee an abusive relationship with her father. She would eventually play in a second slam semi at the Australian Open in 2017 at age 34, literally a lifetime (she had doubled in age) since her first.

Also, Svetlana Kuznetsova, who'd played with a virtual "dark cloud" over her head throughout the first half of the '10 season, refused to shake hands with Anastasia Rodionova after losing their 2nd Round match because of the Russian-turned-Australian's penchant for challenging too many calls during play. Afterward, Kuznetsova refused to express any regret.
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While the decade would end with the emergence of the most deep and talented group of British women the tour had seen in a quarter century, there was actually quite a bit of hope at the beginning of the 2010's, as well.

British women went 0-6 in the 1st Round in 2010, but two of the losses were by a pair of the most promising young players the Brits had seen in a generation: Laura Robson and Heather Watson.


16-year old Robson had already become (in 2008) the first Brit to win the SW19 girls title in 24 years. In 2010, in addition to reaching the girls semis, Robson was appearing (as a WC) in her second straight Wimbledon Ladies MD. She lost to Jelena Jankovic 6-3/7-6 (on Centre Court), but it didn't quiet talk of a bright future. It didn't take long for the future to appear to be rounding into form, either. Within three years, while still a teenager, Robson posted two slam Round of 16 results over a twelve-month stretch in 2012-13. She won an Olympic Silver medal while partnering Andy Murray in Mixed doubles in London in '12, played in her maiden tour singles final that September, and reached the Top 30 in July '13. But then the injuries came. First a wrist injury in early '14, since which Robson has done as much or more commentating on tennis on television as she has playing it. She hasn't won a MD match at a major since, and in 2018 had hip surgery.


At the same time, Watson (also a WC) made her slam debut at Wimbledon in '10. The junior U.S. Open champ a season earlier, Watson lost in the 1st Round to Romina Oprandi at SW19. While never quite seen as having the same potential as a young Robson, Watson's career results have been inconsistent, but her better health has made for a long stint on tour. To date, while she's never advanced past the 3rd Round stage at a major (though she did nearly upset #1 Serena Williams at Wimbledon in '15, coming within two points of the win), she *has* won three tour singles titles and reached a pair of MX finals at the AELTC, winning in 2016 to become the first British woman to do so since 1987.
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Vania King & Yaroslava Shvedova defeated the all-Hordette duo of Elena Vesnina & Vera Zvonareva in the final to claim their first major doubles title. It was the first time since 1975 that the Wimbledon Ladies' WD championship-winning pair consisted of TWO first-time slam winners (in 1975, the team of Ann Kiyomura & Kazuka Sawamatsu won). Defeating the #3, #5 and #6 seeds en route to the Wimbledon crown as an unseeded duo, the then #6-seeded King/Shvedova also claimed the U.S. Open crown at the end of the summer, defeating the #1, #2, #9 and #12 seeds on their way to winning a second consecutive slam title.


Defending WD champs Venus & Serena Willimas lost to Vesnina/Zvonareva in the QF, ending the siblings' four-slam title streak (a run which included five titles in six majors and six of the last seven in which they'd played). The Williamses had won 32 of their last 33 slam WD matches before the loss, with 32 consecutive sets won.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands, with Liezel Huber (who'd seen her longtime partnership with Cara Black recently end), reached her first career slam WD semi in her 24th MD doubles appearance in a major. She has since won five WD slams, and three in MX (where she's also won Olympic Gold). In 2019, after a career during which she's battled back from multiple injuries, she's a Wimbledon WD away from one Career Slam, and a MX win at SW19 from completing a Golden Career Slam there.


Cara Black & Leander Paes won the Mixed doubles title, defeating Lisa Raymond & Wesley Moodie in the final. It was the third slam win for the pair (who'd also won the AO in '10), Black's fifth career Wimbledon title (3 doubles/2 mixed, plus junior singles and doubles) and tenth overall career slam crown (5 doubles/5 mixed).
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Czech Kristyna Pliskova followed up wins over Sloane Stephens (QF) and Yulia Putintseva (SF) with a three-set defeat of Japan's Sachie Ishizu to win the girls title, joining with twin sister Karolina (who'd won the girls AO crown in January) to become the first sisters to win slam titles in the same season. #9-seeded Pliskova had staged a comeback from 4-2 down in the 3rd set to get the win.


With Serena's win in the women's singles and Pliskova's here, it marked the third time in the last six Wimbledons (2005/07/10) that both female singles champions had been part of a tennis-playing sister combo. Not only had either Venus or Serena won nine of eleven women's titles, but four of the junior champs since 2004 -- 2004 Kateryna Bondarenko, 2005 Aga Radwanska, 2007 Urszula Radwanska and Pliskova -- had been "tennis sisters," as well.

Girls #1 Elina Svitolina was upset in the 1st Round by Grace Min, while Kristyna's sister Karolina (#4) was taken out in the 2nd by Nigina Abduraimova. Karolina had also lost in the opening round of women's qualifying, dropping a 14-12 3rd set to Junri Namigata. She wouldn't make her slam MD debut until 2012. Genie Bouchard, a women's finalist in 2014, lost in the girls 2nd Round to Brit Tara Moore.


Stephens & Timea Babos defeated Svitolina & Irina Khromacheva in the girls doubles final. In her junior career, Babos would reach five total slam GD finals, including all four in 2010 (teaming in three with Stephens, with whom she won all but the AO that year).
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Meanwhile, after having previously announced she was committing to a full season of World Team Tennis in the summer, rumors began to swirl that Martina Hingis, having twice retired in 2003 and 2008, could be planning a second comeback. The five-time singles slam winner's participation in WTT had preceded her first comeback in 2005.


While also appearing in a number of exhibitions, former WTA #1 Hingis teamed up in the Wimbledon Invitational Ladies Doubles competition with former WD partner Anna Kournikova, herself having not played on the WTA tour since 2003. After Hingis appeared in another exhibition in Nottingham following Wimbledon, WTT founder Billie Jean King said it was her opinion that Hingis would soon return to the WTA tour as a doubles specialist.
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Brit Elena Baltacha made her ninth career appearance in the Wimbledon MD, losing her 1st Round match to Petra Martic, who rallied from a set and 5-2 down to record her first career MD win at Wimbledon. Baltacha's disappointing result had come after she'd arrived at SW19 after having won a $50K grass event and been the first British woman to reach the QF in Eastbourne since 1983 (defeating Li Na via retirement, as well as '08 Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng Jie).

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In just the second year of wheelchair competition at the All-England Club (but only in doubles, as singles wasn't added until 2016), the all-Dutch duo of Esther Vergeer & Sharon Walraven took the doubles title with a win in the final over Daniela Di Toro & Lucy Shuker. It was Vergeer's second Wimbledon WD crown, after winning the inaugural title while partnering in 2009 with countrywoman Korie Homan, who was absent from Paris due to a wrist ligament injury that ultimately led to her retirement that summer.

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SEEN AT THE AELTC: Queen Elizabeth...


Venus' Tina Turner-inspired "shimmy" dress...


Serena's "strawberries & cream" outfit which (gasp) dared to bring a dash of color to the lawns of the All-England Club...

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[from "Lucky #13" - July 3, 2010]
You just can't keep a good Williams down. Not that anyone really ever came close to pinning Serena to a grass court at the All-England Club over the past fortnight.


Completing a somewhat "routine" trek toward her thirteenth career grand slam singles title, Williams never dropped a set in her seven matches. Thus, a Wimbledon that began with several of the more notable Russians sitting things out on the sidelines, opened with the immediate 1st Round ousters of both the Roland Garros finalists, moved forward as Justine Henin was essentially carried off on her shield (with a summer-ending elbow injury a lingering reminder of just how different things have been for her since her comeback), a frustrated Venus Williams caught an early flight out of London and Kim Clijsters continued to fail to back up her U.S. Open championship with more slam success, ended with Williams taking down Vera Zvonareva, the last of the Hordettes standing, by a 6-3/6-2 score to continue unabated her march through tennis history.

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An on-the-run passing shot off a Zvonareva volley got the job done, as Williams clenched her fist and let loose a triumphant victory cry as her shot's follow-through-and-watch-the-result led her to bend down on one knee and lean on her racket.

You'll surely never see a better "gladiator-like" pose than that of Serena's at that moment. At 5-3 in the opening set, the thought was that what remained of the match seemed destined to now go Williams' way. It wasn't an erroneous assumption.


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(Zvonareva) double-faulted to hand Williams a two-break lead at 4-1. It was all over but the trophy-lifting. Serena finally put the match away with an overhead smash to defend her Wimbledon Ladies singles title and pick up her fourth career crown at the All-England Club. She lost just three points on her serve in the 2nd set, and just two on her 1st serve the entire afternoon.


In the post-match ceremony, Williams, sporting Venus' earrings as well as her sister's necklace gift, reminded in-attendance family friend Billie Jean King that this win moved her past BJK's twelve career major titles on the all-time list. She even "pulled a Taylor Swift," saying that "thirteen is my lucky number."

Seriously, though, what number would Serena consider to NOT be lucky? At this point in her career, ALL of them seem to be pointing in her direction with glee.

At the same Wimbledon in which a 28-year old Roger Federer looked suspiciously like a player most definitely at least on the back side of his personal tennis mountain, its Everest-like peak now firmly in his rear-view window, the 28-year old Williams would seem to be in a situation not even remotely similar. No Sherpas need apply. She's still easily the most dominant force in the women's game, and has quite a few reasonable historical dragons left to slay. In winning a slam without dropping a set for the fourth time in her career, Serena's only somewhat precarious moment (aside from a brief 4-2 hole in the SF vs. Petra Kvitova) came in the 4th Round when Maria Sharapova held three sets points in what turned out to be an 11-9 1st set tie-break. Other than that, Williams met not a single player who seemed capable of being her equal. It's nothing new, really. For years, the maxim "if she's healthy, she's the one to beat" has applied when it came to Williams and the slams.

It looks to be in no danger of needing to be amended or altered.



==QUOTES==
* - "It's amazing you played tennis, because I can still hear you." - James Blake, admonishing ESPN courtside commentator Pam Shriver live on air for talking too loudly in the middle of a point during his match [In video, Shriver talks of Blake at the start, then Blake directs comments toward her at about 4:00]


* - "I'm obviously not pleased with this result. But I have to move on. What else can I do? Unless I have a time machine. Which I don't." - Venus Williams, after losing in the QF to Tsvetana Pironkova

* - "13 is my lucky number." - Serena Williams

* - "Love Her, Hate Her... she's the best ever." - Sports Illustrated







2010-19 "DECADE'S BEST" POSTS
Original Player of the Decade

nominations
AO 2010 Recap
AO 2011 Recap
AO 2012 Recap
AO 2013 Recap
AO 2014 Recap
AO 2015 Recap
AO 2016 Recap
AO 2017-18 Recaps
AO 2019 Recap
Australian Open 2010-19
RG 2010 Recap
RG 2011 Recap
RG 2012 Recap
RG 2013 Recap
RG 2014 Recap
RG 2015 Recap
RG 2016 Recap
RG 2017 Recap
RG 2018-19 Recaps
Roland Garros 201-19














All for now.