Decade's Best: 2017 Wimbledon

The sport's most enigmatic star, Garbine Muguruza, chose the 2017 Wimbledon as the site of her next emergence from the sidelines to prove once again that the very best version of *her* game may very well be capable of soaring higher than that of *any* other player around.





==NEWS & NOTES==
Lifting her game, and keeping her frustrating "alternate" self at bay while putting together her third slam final run in the last three years, Garbine Muguruza became the first Spanish woman to win Wimbledon since Conchita Martinez in 1994, as well as the first to become a multiple slam winner since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won her second crown at Roland Garros that same season.


With her win over Venus Williams in the final, the first to take place under the Centre Court roof and one in which the Spaniard saved 2 SP in the 1st set and never lost another game as she swept the final nine, Muguruza became the only player to defeat BOTH Williams sisters (Serena '16 RG) in a slam final. Her blistering finish closed out a magical two-week run of phenomenon performances that saw her lose just one set (Kerber, 4th Rd.) and drop serve only four times in seven matches.

Time to celebrate! ???? #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/LYIvKtepcT

— WTA (@WTA) July 15, 2017

One of the interesting footnotes regarding Muguruza's Wimbledon title run was that it was accomplished without regular coach Sam Sumyk, who was off tending to family issues. Fed Cup captain Martinez, the *other* Spanish woman to win at SW19 (when she also defeated a 37-year old -- Martina Navratilova -- in the final), stepped into the role for the fortnight. The results were telling, as were the mood, attitude and overall sense of ease and joy that Muguruza had the entire two weeks.

España celebra ????

Spain has a second #Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion... pic.twitter.com/xLCGIlI40y

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2017

Still, Muguruza remained loyal. When asked if she had a message for Sumyk after the final, Muguruza simply smiled and said, "Yes, well, here it is," as she looked into the camera and held up the Venus Rosewater dish. The reality of her holding up the trophy was precisely what Sumyk has been trying to convince her was possible since he'd originally signed on in 2015, and stuck around for through any number of (sometimes embarrassing) changeover "coaching sessions."

Of course, Muguruza's career path has been one of the most unique in memory, as she's flashed dominance in certain majors, but has rarely won titles on the "regular tour," and often seems to ""Mugu"" her way to shocking losses in which she seems totally disconnected from not only the fact that's she's spectacularly talented, but also seemingly that she's a tennis player at all.

At the time in 2017, I asked "What happens next?" Muguruza (23y,9m) was the youngest player to win a SECOND slam since Victoria Azarenka (23y,6m) defended her Australian Open title in 2013. But, unlike the then just-returned mother from Belarus, the Spaniard had won slam crowns on two different surfaces, and surely had the ability to win one on hard courts, as well. Muguruza hadn't exactly embraced the title of "slam champion" the first time around beyond the immediate emotional high such an accomplishment produced. Her year as Roland Garros champion often more resembled a "sentence" than a reign, and her relief was evident once it was over. As soon as it was, she won Wimbledon.

It was encouraging that she seemed determined at this slam to seek the winner's circle yet again so soon after having vacated it. No matter her previous experience, she wasn't afraid to return, having proved herself on multiple occasions to be a "big event player" and one with the sort of game that its owner may rightfully believe can rule the court on any occasion. Muguruza, when she's on a roll as she was at SW19 in '17, is one of those players. It was just a matter of whether she was ready to fully embrace and accept the challenge.

Muguruza *did* reach #1 in September, finished '17 having reached the second week of all four majors in a season for her first time ever, and returned to the RG semis in '18. But she's won just two small tour events (both at the same Monterrey tournament) since her Wimbledon title run. We're still waiting to see if she will ever be the player she *should* be.

Finally, in the summer of '19, Mugurza parted ways with Sumyk after a 2nd Round loss at Wimbledon, having recently dropped out of the Top 20 for the first time in nearly four years. They had some great success together, even while often appearing unhappy and enduring a strained, often contentious partnership. Who she picks to replace him could provide answers to a great number of questions. Unfortunately for Muguruza, Martinez is no longer an available option, as she's now coaching Karolina Pliskova.

As always, it's Garbi's move.
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For the first time in eighteen years, the Wimbledon draw was absent *both* Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. The two-time reigning champ, Williams had won the Australian Open while pregnant with what we'd later know was daughter Alexis Olympia, who was to be born in September; while Sharapova was missing her second consecutive Wimbledon. She'd returned from her drug suspension in April, but had missed Roland Garros after not receiving a WC for either the main draw or qualifying. She was set to play in Wimbledon qualifying for the first time in her career (TV networks lined up to show the rare occurrence live), but then Sharapova withdrew with a thigh injury (originally suffering during the spring clay court campaign in Europe) that scuttled her entire grass court season. She finally returned on the North American hard courts and played her first slam match in nineteen months at the U.S. Open, upsetting #2 Simona Halep in the 1st Round in a nighttime match at Ashe Stadium.

At the same time, new mother (as of December) Victoria Azarenka returned to the tour during the grass season. Wimbledon was her first slam since Roland Garros in '16. After coming back from a set down to defeat CiCi Bellis in the 1st Round, Azarenka advanced to the Round of 16 at the AELTC, losing to Halep. Unfortunately, a custody battle for her son Leo precipitated her withdrawal from the U.S. Open, and ongoing travel restrictions involved with the case meant she didn't play in her next slam event until Roland Garros in the spring of '18.

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Venus Williams, 37, arrived on the final Saturday of play with a racket bag filled with history, and looking to add still more. In her ninth Wimbledon final, twenty years after her SW19 debut, she played in her second slam final of 2017, having lost to Serena in January as her 35-year old sister became the oldest Open era slam champ. She hadn't reached *two* finals in a single season since 2003.

At 37, Venus Williams is the oldest finalist at #Wimbledon since Martina Navratilova in 1994 https://t.co/ru84h93FZZ pic.twitter.com/mUxb53x549

— SI Tennis (@SI_Tennis) July 13, 2017

After coming into the fortnight riding a wave of unwelcome headlines following her involvement in a tragic auto accident in Florida in June, Williams altered the narrative of her story by turning back the clock with a series of vintage performances in which she expertly downed a rising Belgian (Elise Mertens), an underrated Chinese talent (Wang Qiang, after trailing 6-4/4-3), two promising teens (Naomi Osaka and Ana Konjuh), the 20-year old reigning Roland Garros champion (Alona Ostapenko), and Britain's first female Wimbledon semifinalist in thirty-nine years (Johanna Konta), serving with great force and firing penetrating forehands with a furious tenacity that allowed her to control the court against her much younger opponents, handcuffing their ability to adequately fight for their Wimbledon lives.


Williams didn't get the storybook ending of a sixth SW19 Ladies crown, but her appearance in her second 2017 slam singles final officially moved the living legend out of the role of simply being a nostalgia-laced centerpiece at the season's celebratory dinner. Her year-long resurgence would continue in New York, as she'd reach her third slam semi of '16 (her most in 15 years) and finish the season at #5, her best standing since 2010.

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The (seemingly) prerequisite first-time major semifinalist for this slam -- the 17th consecutive with at least one -- was veteran Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova. Always a good grass courter, the 28-year old's career has often been injury-plagued. She'd returned in February after an seven-month absence (wrist & knee surgeries) and was in the Wimbledon draw using a protected ranking. She caught fire during the grass season, going 18-2 on all levels, winning two $100K ITF titles, reaching the Nottingham semis and then overcoming what had been, considering her other grass court results, a spectacularly poor history (2-9, w/ eight 1st Rd. exits) at SW19. She defeated #3 Karolina Pliskova, Petra Martic and #25 CoCo Vandeweghe en route to her first major semifinal, where she lost to Muguruza.

Rybarikova had never advanced beyond the 3rd Round in any of her previous thirty-five major MD appearances.

A post shared by Magdalena Rybarikova (@magdalena_rybarikova) on Jul 11, 2017 at 2:38pm PDT

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Petra Kvitova was still not able to completely close her racket hand nor feel the tips of all her fingers, the lingering result of offseason emergency hand surgery after having survived a home invasion knife attack in the Czech Republic in December. She'd returned earlier than anticipated, deciding to play Roland Garros just to get the whole notion of a "comeback" out of the way, and even won a match when just being able to be on the court at all was a victory all its own.

But then she won the grass court Birmingham title in her second event back. It suddenly thrust the two-time SW19 champ into a stunning position at the All-England Club, labeled the "favorite" by many in a Serena-less draw. The reality was that it was too much to ask of a player who was not 100% and barely had any match play to speak of. After winning a 1st Round match, playing in the sort of hot conditions that had often exacerbated her asthmatic condition, the #11-seeded Kvitova fell to Madison Brengle in three sets.

While Kvitova wasn't up to some sort of historic slam performance, as maybe the most well-liked player on tour, Kvitova managed to legitimately bring out the good in pretty much everyone else simply by just showing up.

A post shared by Petra Kvitova (@petra.kvitova) on Jun 15, 2017 at 11:16am PDT

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The sea change in British women's tennis that had begun when Johanna Konta first represented the nation in the spring of 2012 had perhaps its biggest Wimbledon moment in 2017.


There was some more of the (old) same, though.

Laura Robson, a wild card *again* (make that in seven of eight MD appearances), lost in the 1st Round to Beatriz Haddad Maia. Another wild card, Katie Boulter, made her slam debut. The 20-year old put up a fight against Christina McHale, but fell in three. Heather Watson once more held her own, pulling the upset over #18 Anastasija Sevastova in the 2nd Round, but couldn't follow it up and lost a round later to Victoria Azarenka. She then made *another* run to the MX doubles final with Henri Kontinen, but couldn't win her second title in a row.

Watson was one of two Brits to reach the 3rd Round, the most since 1986, joined by #6-seeded Konta, who became the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon semis since Virginia Wade in 1978.

Konta's steady climb up the rankings peaked over the course of the 2016-17 seasons as she reached the Australian Open semis (2016), won her biggest career title (Miami 2017), posted back-to-back Top 10 campaigns and climbed as high as #4 following this Wimbledon. During the '17 grass court season, she recorded wins over a pair of Top 2 players -- #1 Angelique Kerber in Eastbourne, and then #2 Simona Halep in the QF at SW19 -- to run her number of Top 10 wins over the two-season stretch to eleven. Konta's headline-grabbing push ended with a loss to Venus Williams.


Konta would have a hard time living up to the higher level of expectation in 2018, going through a series of coaches while nearly falling out of the Top 40, before rebounding with another new coach and more well-rounded game in '19 (when she reached the semis at a third different major in Paris).
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Draw notes:

* - when Czechs went 0-6 in the 2nd Round, it meant none reached the 3rd Round at Wimbledon for the first time since 2009

* - Naomi Osaka made her Wimbledon debut, reaching the 3rd Round just as she had in her maiden slam appearances in the draws in Melbourne, Paris and New York in 2016. After upsetting #22 Barbora Strycova in the 2nd Round, Osaka lost to #10 V.Williams.


Meanwhile, newly-minted Roland Garros champ Alona Ostapenko didn't fade away at Wimbledon. The '14 girls champ became the first maiden slam winner in eleven years (Kim Clijsters '06) to reach the QF in her next major appearance, defeating #4 seed Elina Svitolina in the Round of 16, her second Top 10 victory at SW19 in three years. She, too, lost to Venus.


A year after falling to Aga Radwanska in a 9-7 3rd set after having rolled her ankle after stepping on a ball at 7-7, Ana Konjuh seemed to be doing the Pole's "bidding" a year later. The #27 seed, she knocked off Sabine Lisicki (def. Aga in '13 SF) in the 1st Round, and #8 Dominika Cibulkova (def. Aga 2016 4th Rd.) in the 3rd before falling in the Round of 16 to -- altogether now -- Miss Venus Williams.

* - for the first time since making her tournament debut in 2012 (after winning the SW19 girls title a year earlier), Ash Barty played a MD singles match at Wimbledon. Fully back on tour after her sabbatical from the sport, the #56-ranked Aussie lost to #4-seed Elina Svitolina in the 1st Round by a 7-5/7-6 score. Playing doubles at SW19 with Casey Dellacqua for the first time since 2014 (they'd reached three slam finals in '13 when Barty was just 17 years old), the pair followed up their RG final by losing in three sets in the QF to eventual champions Makarova/Vesnina.

* - having qualified to reach her first Wimbledon MD, 27-year old Arina Rodionova recorded her first career slam MD win over #16 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who'd advanced to the QF in London the previous year. Pavlyuchenkova had led 6-3/5-4, and had seven MP in the 2nd set. On her own third MP, Rodionova won 3-6/7-6(6)/9-7.

* - Johanna Konta's semifinal run had picked up steam in the 2nd Round when she survived a 2nd Round encounter with Donna Vekic. The Croat had defeated Konta in the Nottingham final weeks earlier, picking up her first WTA title since 2014, and had numerous opportunities to surge ahead in their second match-up.

Vekic served for the 1st set at 5-3, only to DF on break point, then lost a quality 3:10 three-setter 7-6(4)/4-6/10-8 as they two combined for nearly 100 winners and were seperated by just three points (130-127 Konta) on the day. The Brit comforted the teary Vekic at the net after the match.


* - after undergoing a foot surgery in January, Sloane Stephens didn't walk until April. Having dropped outside the Top 100, she made her return to tennis at Wimbledon (via a protected ranking) after an 11-month absence from the tour (she'd last played at the Rio Olympics). She lost in the 1st Round to Alison Riske.

Her ranking would fall as low as #957 during the North American hard court season, from which Stephens would launch quite possibly the most remarkable comeback in tennis history, as by the end of the summer she'd won her maiden slam crown at the U.S. Open and was ranked #17.

* - despite being in the middle of what would eventually be the worst "year-after" campaign for any year-ending #1 in WTA history (she was the first to end the next season outside the Top 20 without having a major injury or retirement play a part in the fall), Angelique Kerber showed signs of what would eventually be a rebound.

In the 3rd Round, the German rallied from 6-4/4-2 down (two points from 5-2) to defeat Shelby Rogers, then in the Round of 16 gave Garbine Muguruza her sternest test of the fortnight (in a clash of the last two Wimbledon runner-ups) in what was possibly Kerber's best match of '17 despite the 4-6/6-4/6-4 scoreline in the Spaniard's favor. The opening set was the only set Muguruza lost in the entire tournament.

A year later, Kerber returned to the All-England Club and took the title.


* - meanwhile, the 2017 Wimbledon was (likely, as nothing is yet "official") the last appearance at SW19 of two of the decade's most intriguing personalities: Tsvetana Pironkova and Jelena Jankovic.

2010 semifinalist (and the bane of Venus Williams' Wimbledon existence) Pironkova lost in the 2nd Round to Caroline Wozniacki. The Bulgarian hasn't played a match since, and became a mother in April 2018.

Former #1, '08 U.S. Open finalist and five-time Wimbledon Round of 16 participant Jankovic fell in a 1st Round match to Aga Radwanska, her second loss to the Pole at SW19 in three years. JJ had served at 5-4 and 6-5 in the 1st set, then didn't win another game, losing 7-6(3)/6-0.

Playing in her 56th consecutive slam at the U.S. Open later that summer, Jankovic lost in the 1st Round again, giving her three straight one-and-out exits in majors for the first time in her career. The Serb had back surgery in October '17 and missed the entire '18 season, then eye surgery the following May. She hasn't played since, and has rarely been seen. Still, no official retirement announcement has ever been made.
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In the most dominant performance in a slam WD final in over forty-six years ('71 AO - Court/Goolagong), Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina became the first-ever post-Soviet Russian duo to claim the Wimbledon women's doubles title, crushing Chan Hao-Ching & Monica Niculescu 6-0/6-0 in a fifty-five minute match. The only other Wimbledon WD final to end with the double-bagel scoreline came in 1953.

A year earlier, Vesnina had reached the Wimbledon singles semifinals. In 2017, she and Makarova bull-rushed their way to the doubles crown, dropping just one set along the way.

The SW19 doubles win added to the Hordette pair's other big event results, bringing them one RG title away from completing not only a Career Doubles Slam, but a Career Golden Doubles Slam. With their '16 Rio Gold, they only needed a win in Melbourne to join the Williams sisters (and Bryan twins and Aussie "Woodies" on the men's side) with all four major titles, plus the Olympics, on their resume. They also won the WTA Finals in '16, meaning they have five of the six biggest WD titles. No women's duo has ever won all six (mostly because Navratilova/Shriver never teamed in an Olympics, and Venus & Serena only played doubles at the season-ending championships once, but still).

Makarova/Vesnina, having already lost an Australian Open final in 2014, returned to the final in Melbourne in 2018 with the chance to pick up their missing title, but lost to Babos/Mladenovic. The duo haven't played together since the spring of that season, as Vesnina has been out while having a baby (November '18).

In what turned out to be her final Wimbledon, Martina Hingis picked up one additional title at the All-England Club. The Swiss Miss (though she wouldn't be for long, as she got married in 2018) took home her sixth career Mixed doubles crown (her second in three years at Wimbledon) while partnering Brit Jamie Murray, defeating defending champs Heather Watson & Henri Kontinen in the final. In 2016, she'd picked up what would be the second leg of a Career MX Slam with Leander Paes. The win was the 23rd overall slam title of Hingis' career.


Hingis' title run made up for her and '17 partner Latisha Chan's shocking meltdown in the women's doubles QF after leading by a double-break at 4-1 in the 3rd vs. Groenefeld/Peschke, then never winning another game. The loss proved to be Hingis' only defeat on the grass that summer, as in addition to her MX title she and Chan had swept both the Mallorca & Eastbourne titles before arriving at the All-England Club.

Hingis would win two final slams at the U.S. Open, sweeping the events with Chan and Murray. At the end of the season, Hingis announced her final retirement, and revealed that Chan had known of her plans since the start of the year (she'd been mostly partnering her sister, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to play the season with the Hall of Famer).

Hingis became a mother for the first time in 2019, and has yet to reveal her future plans. Likely of note, she undertook brief coaching stints with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Sabine Lisicki and Belinda Bencic in 2013-15, and is the daughter of a coach, Melanie Molitor.

What had been expected to be a big storyline in the doubles competition was the quest of Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Lucie Safarova to complete a "Team Bucie" Slam by winning their fourth straight major. They never really got the chance. After the duo reached the 2nd Round in doubles, BMS suffered what, at the time, appeared to be devastating knee injury (it turned out to be a dislocated kneecap and ruptured patellar ligament, but not the potential career-ender it appeared to be as her soul-crushing screams in injury's immediate aftermath carried over the AELTC grounds) in a singles match vs. Sorana Cirstea.



As a horde of trainers and members of her team huddled around her (even Safarova was called in from wherever she'd been on the grounds to offer comfort), Mattek was ultimately carried off on a stretcher and didn't play again until the following March. But while BMS's career didn't end with the injury, the run of "Team Bucie" essentially did. The pair only played eight more matches together, and just six in grand slam competition (4-2, with most of those in a QF in a return to SW19 in '18), due to various combinations of Safarova illness/injury or (another) Mattek-Sands knee surgery, and then the Czech announced that she would retire after the 2019 Australian Open. Even *that* didn't pan out, as she was unable to play there, and by the time she was ready for a final multi-event farewell -- Stuttgart, where she reached the final, Prague & RG -- in the spring it was Mattek who couldn't play. Instead, Safarova teamed with Pavlyuchenkova, Barbora Stefkova and Dominika Cibulkova.

Safarova's career ended after a 1st Round WD loss in Paris to Kenin/Petkovic, and during Wimbledon she announced she was pregnant with her first child.
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On the anniversaries of 2013's "Black Wednesday," more craziness ensued:

* - on June 26, in Eastbourne, defending champ Dominika Cibulkova lost in the opening match to WC Heather Watson, and four lucky losers won MD matches.

Diving headfirst into #Wimbledon like... pic.twitter.com/Ok9iXKIDF7

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2017

* - on Day 3 at Wimbledon, it was "Flying Ant Day" as the newly-emerged insects swarmed the AELTC grounds. Meanwhile, six women's seeds fell, including two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

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In the juniors, #3-seeded Claire Liu won the all-Bannerette singles final -- the first at SW19 since 1992 -- with a 6-2/5-7/6-2 victory over unseeded Ann Li. Liu, trying to avoid becoming the first girl to lose back-to-back slam finals since 2011 (Monica Puig AO & RG), served for the match at 6-2/5-4, and had triple MP before Li forced a 3rd set. Liu reclaimed control from there, becoming the first U.S. girl to win the Wimbledon title since Chanda Rubin. On the heels of having reached the Roland Garros girls final on clay, the win completed a dominant grass court campaign for Liu, who'd also won the Roehampton tune-up event. Liu became the girls #1 following Wimbledon.


With Whitney Osuigwe having won the RG junior crown, Liu's title marked the first time in 28 years that U.S. girls had combined to win consecutive major titles. Amanda Anisimova would win the U.S. Open juniors later that summer, making it *three* straight slam champs.


In the doubles, Serb Olga Danilovic & Slovenian Kaja Juvan claimed the title with a win in the final over the all-Bannerette duo of Caty McNally (also a RU in '16) & Osuigwe.
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20-year old would-be wheelchair superstar Diede de Groot (aka "Diede the Great") finally made her Wimbledon debut in 2017, and all she did was dominate the field (losing just fourteen games while never dropping a set) en route to the singles title to pick up her first career slam crown, then come within a set of sweeping *both* competitions before finishing as the doubles runner-up. (She'd complete a sweep of the s/d crowns at SW19 in '18, as well as in New York that year, then Melbourne and Paris the next.)


The rise of de Groot, a protege of WC legend Esther Vergeer, was something that was seen well in advance. The previous season, while still a teenager, she'd won the season-ending Masters Doubles title, Silver in the Paralympic Doubles in Rio, as well as having a 3rd place finish in the '16 Masters and 4th in the Paralympic Singles.

At Wimbledon, she struck 31 winners (vs. 14 for runner-up Sabine Ellerbrock) in the final, finishing with a 90-39 edge in the category for the tournament as she followed up Dutch countrywoman Jiske Griffioen's win in the inaugural Wimbledon WC singles competition in '16.

This Wimbledon turned out to be the final slam appearance for Griffioen. The #1 seed, after losing to Aniek Van Koot in her opening singles match, Griffioen withdrew from the doubles due to injury. She and Van Koot had been the #1 seeds, thus she was substituted in the pairing by alternate Dana Mathewson of the U.S.. The new duo lost to defending champs Yui Kamiji & Jordanne Whiley, who advanced to their fifth straight Wimbledon final, where they claimed their fourth consecutive title with a win over de Groot & Marjolein Buis.

Kamiji came as close to reaching the singles final in '16 as has in any of the four Wimbledon singles competitions held in the decade, falling in a 3rd set TB to Ellerbrock in the semifinals, one game short of playing in the final for the only WC slam title that has so far eluded her in her career.

Griffioen, 32, never played another event, retiring in October due to "lacking the fire" to continue to compete. "Winning Roland Garros in 2015 and reaching the world No.1 spot was one of my highlights," she said. "And winning the first title at Wimbledon was very special. My name will be on top of the list forever, that’s a special feeling."

View this post on Instagram

It's what you do in the darkness, that gets you in the light.?? #tennis #tennisplayer #wheelchairtennis #paralympic #athlete #portrait #portraitphotography @bramberkien

A post shared by JiskeGriffioen (@jiskegriffioen) on Oct 3, 2017 at 6:20am PDT

Meanwhile, heading into the 2019 U.S. Open, de Groot has appeared in every slam singles and doubles final in the decade since her two SW19 championship matches in '17. In Paris in '19, she became the first player in WC history to win and simultaneously hold all eight slam titles.
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It was two in a row for Cara Black & Martina Navratilova, as they successfully defended their Invitation Doubles title with a win in the final over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario & Selima Sfar.
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SEEN AT THE AELTC:

A Princess (Kate) and Prince (William)...


A King (Juan Carlos, of Spain)...


Another King (named Billie Jean)...


A Dame (Maggie Smith) and a Sir (Ian McKellen)...


And a Mother of Dragons (Emilia Clarke)...


Beckham...


Spike (Lee)...


Bradley C. (Cooper)...


And "old" and new Spanish tennis royalty...

Unbridled celebrations.

Spain's two ladies' singles champions share a moment ????#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/tMk6nODVF9

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2017

Latvian disapproval...


An Invitational Invitation (and hijinks)...


And the two-time reigning Queen (soon-to-be-new) Mum, back home in the States...

Pregnant but Priming: Serena Williams is already plotting her post-baby domination #WTA https://t.co/9jrAsbozUv

— Douglas Robson (@dougrobson) June 16, 2017

A post shared by Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) on Jun 15, 2017 at 5:56am PDT

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[from "The Caracas Conqueror" - July 15, 2017]
Twenty-three years ago, a Spanish woman showed up at Centre Court and ripped a storybook slam singles title from the clutches of a 37-year old Wimbledon legend, denying her a chance to relive her former glory one more time. Today, it happened again.

Your 2017 #Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Champion... @GarbiMuguruza pic.twitter.com/xbXhmTeNRp

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2017

In 1994, when Conchita Martinez defeated all-time great Martina Navratilova in the aforementioned SW19 Ladies final, Garbine Muguruza was a nine-month old Venezuelan. Born in Caracas the previous October, Muguruza would first wield a tennis racket at age three, move to Spain along with her family at age six, where she'd train at the Bruguera Tennis Academy near Barcelona and ultimately decide to represent her adopted nation as she began her tennis career.

In 2015, Venezuela-born Muguruza became the first Spanish woman since the Martinez/Sanchez glory years to reach a slam singles final, falling to Serena Williams at Wimbledon. A season later, she'd defeat Williams to claim her maiden slam crown at Roland Garros. Thirteen months later, on the third Saturday of July, she played in another Wimbledon championship match, this time against another Williams, 37-year old Venus, who was looking to cap off yet another of her recent resurgent runs with her eighth career slam win, her first major title since 2008 and one which would make her the oldest women to win a slam singles crown in the Open era. But serving as the "secret weapon" in Muguruza's corner -- her players box, in fact, serving as her coach while Sam Sumyk has been away -- was none other than Spanish Fed Cup Captain Martinez, who knows a little something about defeating a 37-year old legend with "USA" next to her name on the most fabled tennis court in the world.

It was almost as if history was destined to repeat itself. And it did, too.

** ** **
would all that Williams had going for her be enough to overcome Muguruza, who'd been displaying a Serena-like dominance for most of the tournament? The 23-year old, while garnering far fewer headlines, had gone about *her* business at this tournament with a ruthless efficiency. Free of the self-imposed shackles that her year-long stint as RG champ turned out to be -- she was playing in her very first final since winning in Paris in 2016 -- Muguruza had for two weeks controlled her sometimes troublesome mental game while also flashing a nearly untouchable physical one, especially on serve, where she was broken just four times in six matches, three of those coming in her 4th Round clash with then-#1 Angelique Kerber before the Spaniard finally ended her stay atop the WTA rankings. She'd lost just one of thirteen sets while advancing to her third career slam final.

** ** **
What happened was a 1st set which would often be a contest in which one, and then the other, attempted to corral a wayward forehand wing, hoping that it wouldn't become a lethal liability on the biggest points of the day. Ultimately, the match turned on a proverbial dime, as Muguruza battled her way out of a corner when her back was seemingly plastered against the wall, then used the momentum she achieved to grab a bigger advantage, quickly seizing total control of the match. As her game strengthened, that of Williams began to lose the strong grip it'd shown throughout this Wimbledon and, in the end, left Venus to lament her missed opportunity late in the opening set in a game that turned out to be *the* key swing moment of the final. While Williams' latest fairy tale run came to an end by the close of the day, Muguruza had managed to start yet another chapter in a story of her own that is largely still unwritten.

** ** **
With a look of determination on her face and the confident body language that have become a common sight at this Wimbledon, Muguruza would not be slowed. She held for 4-0, then saw Williams' now error-strewn arsenal lead to a love/40 advantage. A backhand down the line gave Muguruza a triple break lead at 5-0. Her dominance at this event was no longer a "quiet" one. In control of all within her reach, she took a 40/love lead while trying to serve out the title. It took her three MP attempts to get the job done, with a failed replay challenge on the first, then ending with a successful one on the third that overturned a bad line call of a Williams baseline shot, but she once again closed the door without a break in stride. The call change, somewhat anticlimactically, ended the match, but it made Muguruza's 7-5/6-0 victory official.

The moment @GarbiMuguruza won #Wimbledon... pic.twitter.com/u2gg7xv55Z

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2017

** ** **
Recounting the words of encouragement she received from her first Wimbledon final appearance in 2015, Muguruza said, "Two years ago I lost to Serena and she told me maybe one day I would win. Here I am!" Since then, she's won both of her major titles. So, aside from everything else, Serena can see the future, too. Of course she can.




==QUOTES==
* - "They’re in my mouth and in my hair and everywhere – we need to do something. Is there a spray? I want to be here to focus on tennis, not eating bugs." - Caroline Wozniacki, to the chair umpire on Flying Ant Day

* - "I don't think about my age. It is not a factor." - Venus Williams

* - "My mind is more equipped this time." - Garbine Muguruza, on playing in her second Wimbledon final

* - "I had the hardest match today against Venus. She's such an amazing player. I grew up watching her play... sorry!" - Garbine Muguruza, addressing the crown (and Williams) after the final

* - "Two years ago I lost to Serena and she told me maybe one day I would win. Here I am!" - Garbine Muguruza

Fun with a new friend...#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/hSS6b2cWXH

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 15, 2017

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

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