Spain’s Garbine Muguruza won her first Wimbledon title with a straight-set win over five-time champion Venus Williams.
The 23-year-old saved two set points and won the last nine games in a 7-5 6-0 victory under the Centre Court roof.
Muguruza denied the 37-year-old a first major title for nine years, which would have made her the oldest female Grand Slam champion in the Open era.
Gabrine Muguruza needed just an hour and 17 minutes to beat her much experienced and fancier rival Venus Williams in the final of Wimbledon on Saturday. The Spaniard came out 7-5, 6-0 victorious in a contest that promised much in the first but fizzed out in the second with Muguruza building on her depth of groundstrokes. This is Muguruza’s second Grand Slam title after she had won the 2016 French Open and her first Wimbledon. She had earlier lost the final in 2015 to Venus’ younger sister Serena. She is the second female Spaniard to win the title after Conchita Martinez – her coach – won in 1994.
The first set stayed on serve for a long time before Venus brought up two set points. The high quality first set saw both women go back-and-forth from the onset. In the very first game, Venus was pushed on her serve but in typical fashion, she came out fighting to hold.
That parity was destroyed in the tenth game when Venus earned herself two set points while leading 5-4. She saved both break points after playing two monumental rallies with the first resulting in a 19 shot rally. As Venus’ forehand errors piled up, it helped Muguruza bring up break point in the following game. After another lung-bursting rally, Venus netted yet another forehand to give Muguruza a chance to hold and take the first set. A superb defensive lob in the service game brought up two set points and after squandering the first, she took the second to seal the opening set.
The second set went wrong for Venus from the word go with error count piling up. By the end of the second set, and the match, Venus hit 10 unforced errors to Muguruza’s one. Muguruza was equally efficient in putting away the big points as she converted three-of-four break points while not allowing Venus any way in.
The Venezuela-born 23-year-old Muguruza sealed the match after a successful Hawkeye challenge of a Williams forehand that sailed just beyond the baseline.
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