Serena Williams
While the whole world has been glued for a month to the events in Russia and closely following the football in Fifa World Cup 2018, an intriguing tennis tournament has been going on in the lush green courts of the All England Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon in south-west London.
Yes, the third Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year and the most prestigious one at that has been underway for the last fortnight and is now reaching its climax with the Women's Singles final being played today (Saturday) and the Men's Singles final tomorrow, on the same day as France take on Croatia at Moscow in the final of the 21st edition of Fifa World Cup football tournament.
The most famous 'sporting mum' of this generation, Serena Williams, winner of 23 Grand Slam titles, will clash with former Australian and US Open Champion Angelique Kerber of Germany.
Wimbledon 2018 has had some similarity with Fifa World Cup 2018 though, especially in the women's singles event. As we have seen Germany, Spain, Argentina and Portugal making early exits in Russia, all the 10 top seeds in the women's singles in Wimbledon were eliminated before they could reach the quarter final stage.
They included French Open champion Simona Halep, Australian Open winner Caroline Wozniacki, Wimbledon title holder Garbine Muguruza, US Open champion Sloane Stephens, Elina Svitlona, Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova.
At 36, Serena Williams is one of the oldest players to have reached Wimbledon Singles final. But her re-emergence into the tennis world has been phenomenal. It was only 10 months back in September, 2017 that she gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia.
Because of her absence from the tennis circuit, she is now ranked 181st in the world, but considering, her past success, she has been seeded 25th in this year's Wimbledon. In this her fourth tournament since her comeback she will be fighting for her 8th Wimbledon singles title and 24th Grand Slam title to equal Margaret Court's record of most major titles.
The only other Grand Slam tournament she had played in since becoming a mother was the French Open this year but had to later withdraw because of injuries.
But, in the last fortnight she has demonstrated that she is capable of dominating women's tennis and tennis enthusiasts have witnessed superb display of power and athleticism as she marched into her 10th final at Wimbledon. An incredible record for the woman tennis player of the era - may be, off all eras.
On her way to the final, Serena Williams was stretched to the final set in only one match - that against Italy's Camilla Giorgi in the quarter final which she won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the semi-final she beat Germany's Julia Goerges 6-2, 6-4 after some fine display by both the players.
Angelique Kerber
Serena's powerful serves were matched by those of Goerges but a break in the sixth game of the first set brought Serena the opening set winner. Georges did put a fight in the second and made Serena move across the court a number of times.
But Serena brought about another service break to lead 4-2. While leading 5-3 and serving for the match, Serena got broken for the only time allowing Goerges to remain in the match. But serving at 4-5, she again lost her serve and gave victory to Serena for her astonishing 30th Grand Slam final and denying an all-German final.
The last German woman player to have won the Wimbledon title was the famous Steffi Graf who won her seventh title there in 1996 when she beat Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in straight sets - a match I was privileged to witness during my days as a radio journalist.
Angelique Kerber had the opportunity to emulate her childhood idol Graf in 2016 when she clashed with Serena Williams in the final at Wimbledon but lost 7-5, 6-3.
Kerber now gets another opportunity to avenge that defeat. Kerber has been in top form in 2016 when she won the Australian Open (beating Serena 6-4, 3-6, 6-4) and the US Open and was ranked Number One in the world.
But the burden of being top-ranked player took its toll on Kerber and she had a torrid 2017 losing her rankings.This year has seen a resurgent Kerber reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open but losing to Simona Halep in a thrilling three-setter match. She lost again to Simona Halep in the quarter final of the French Open after winning the first set.
In Wimbledon 2018, Kerber had little difficulty in her progress to the final conceding only one set in her second round match against Claire Liu which she won 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. She met the winner of French Open of last year Jelena Ostapenko in the semi-final.
In a very fast game with some enthralling rallies, an obdurate and versatile Kerber came out winner 6-3, 6-3 in a match that lasted just over an hour. It appeared that Kerber has begun to believe in herself once again.
The stage is now set for the third meeting between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber in the final of a Grand Slam with Kerber winning in the 2016 Australian Open and Serena exacting revenge six months later at Wimbledon. On one side is the composed and resilient Serena Williams who has almost all the shots in the book and continues to astound the tennis world.
On the other is the resurgent and, in the opinion of many, a grass-court pedigree Angelique Kerber who is now more aggressive and more consistent in her play.Both Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber are ready for this momentous occasion as whoever wins will create a new record in the annals of Grand Slam tennis.
The writer is a senior journalist, political commentator and
sports analyst
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