By Craig Gabriel
WIMBLEDON: She's done it again. Serena Williams has won the Wimbledon Championship for the second consecutive year and for the fourth time overall.
The world number one took just 67 minutes to overcome first time finalist Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 and claim her 13th Grand Slam crown. This year she has won just two titles but the two she has won are among the biggest - in January Serena won the season's first Grand Slam event, the Australian Open.
She was so excited. She was so thrilled. When she smashed away the last point for a winner you could see all the relief and pressure was off. Her face was beaming. Her racquet was thrown high into the air and her arms went straight up in victory.
The final started with Serena serving and it seemed to be a signal of what was the come because she held serve without dropping a point. In the third game Serena held serve but it was a close one before she slammed out an ace to go up 2-1. The two ladies were holing serve but in the eighth game the break through happened.
Zvonareva was serving. Serena already had has two break points and not converted but then on the third there was a short rally, Zvonareva worked her way to the net; she volleyed to the backhand side which Serena raced to an returned, Zvonareva then played the volley to the forehand side as Serena took these huge strides across the court.
The world number one was chasing the ball down with her racquet outstretched. She managed to get into as best a position as she could and connected with the ball. Like a rocket it crossed the net as Zvonareva lunged to cut it off. There was no hope of that happening and as the ball hit the grass Serena spun around on her heel, with one knee on the ground and her fist clenched she screamed "YEAH!"
The Russian opened the second set and Serena got the immediate service break when Zvonareva netted a forehand and then held to go up 2-0
The sun was bathing the now heavily worn grass court which, for the last few days, has been playing more like a hard court. The ball has been sitting up rather than staying low like a traditional grass court. Either way it's been fine with Serena as her powerful and athletic game has won her so many free points.
Serena broke serve again in the fifth game when Zvonareva sent a forehand long. She went up 5-1 but the Russian was able to prolong things just a bit when she held serve in the next game.
Serving for the Championships Serena opened the game by slamming down her ninth ace of the match and her 89th for the tournament. No other woman in history has served so many aces at Wimbledon. And then it was all over with that smash.
This is her 37th career title and she is now equal fourth with Billie Jean King on the all-time list of Wimbledon winners - Martina Navratilova has nine, Steffi Graf has seven and Venus has five. This being her 13th Slam crown puts her in sixth place on the all-time list.
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