Serena Williams is back on top!
After suffering some losses over the past year in the Australian Open, the French Open, and the U.S. Open, Williams was victorious Saturday when she beat Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final. Williams’ seventh win at Wimbledon marks her 22nd grand slam singles title, tying her with Steffi Graf’s record in the Open era. Williams is now only behind Margaret Court for most grand slam singles wins with 24.
“Yeah, it’s been incredibly difficult not to think about it. I had a couple of tries this year,” Williams stated at the trophy ceremony. “But it makes the victory even sweeter to know how hard I worked for it…I have, yeah, definitely had some sleepless nights, if I’m just honest, with a lot of stuff. Coming so close. Feeling it, not quite able to get there.”
“If I’m totally honest, I’m not relieved to have the 22nd,” Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou said. “I’m relieved to have found back Serena. Everything depends on that. Again, I don’t look at the reward. I look at how to achieve it, and there was clearly something missing the last eight months, and the thing that was missing was just Serena. I mean, the tennis player was there, but Serena as a person was not really herself, so she was beatable.”
Williams celebrated her historic win on Instagram:
Many celebrities took to social media to congratulate the tennis superstar:
Congratulations, @SerenaWilliams! This tweet is just in case you couldn’t hear me scream it from the stands. #Wimbledon.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) July 9, 2016
#Serena 🙏🏾 I bow down. And am simultaneously uplifted.
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) July 9, 2016
@serenawilliams v @AngeliqueKerber @Wimbledon Serena = champion! Incredible effort. You’re a class act. #22
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) July 9, 2016
SERENA!!!!! YES!!!! a spectacular match! Congratulations @serenawilliams !‼️‼️‼️‼️
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) July 9, 2016
How beautiful it is to win. @serenawilliams your commitment to perfection inspires us all to win. #WimbledonFinals #Catch22 #Wimbledon2016
— Laverne Cox (@Lavernecox) July 9, 2016
Man I’m crying. @serenawilliams just put a small bandaid on my heart! Thank you!!!! Thank you my beautiful friend!
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) July 9, 2016
YES SERENA YES
— Hailee Steinfeld (@HaileeSteinfeld) July 9, 2016
Williams also had more reason to celebrate today as she and her sister Venus won their 14th Grand Slam doubles titles together. They beat out Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. It was their sixth win together at Wimbledon.
“Watching Serena earlier was so amazing, and I was so into that. And then you have to re-set yourself and say, ‘OK, we’ve got to play a match and we’re going to have to try to win,'” Venus said in an interview with the BBC. “So she brought the energy from Game 1 and that really brought me up, too.”
