Photo : Martin Sidorjak
All Hail to Her Majesty.
The Queen is back.
How fitting it is that her return comes in the United Kingdom.
After a one-year absence from the tour, Serena Williams has made her much anticipated return to tennis, debuting on the grass courts of the Eastbourne International this past week as she competed in doubles alongside top 10 stalwart, Ons Jabeur.
The pair advanced to the semifinals of the event in a tune-up before Wimbledon 2022, the season’s third major.
While Serena Williams’ has accrued simply astounding numbers across all four major tournaments, winning a total of 23 grand slams, the Wimbledon Championships has long been a hunting ground for one of the greatest players in tennis history.
Let’s take a look at seven of Serena’s incredible stats and records at the All England Lawn Tennis Club:
Longest span between titles at Wimbledon
2002 marked one of the biggest breakthrough seasons of Serena’s early career.
After winning her first French Open that year just weeks prior, Williams arrived at Wimbledon brewing with confidence, intent on completing her ascent to the top of the women’s game.
Serena would cap a flawless fortnight without dropping a set, defeating her sister Venus Williams 7-6, 6-3 in the final for her maiden title at SW19.
The Wimbledon victory also earned her the world number one ranking for the first time in her career.
14 years later, Serena was continuing her reign of dominance at the All England Club, defeating Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 to win a seventh crown and 22nd career major, tying Steffi Graff’s Open Era record.
That 14-year gap of time marks the longest span between titles in Wimbledon history.
Winning the Tournament Six or more Times
Winning one title is a special achievement for any professional tennis player.
Serena Williams has incredibly won four tournaments six or more times in her career, with three of them being majors.
Her 2015 Wimbledon title marked the sixth of her seven career singles wins at the event.
She also has won 7 Australian Opens, six US Open crowns, and has eight Miami Masters titles.
Williams is just the fourth woman in the Open Era to win a tournament six or more times, alongside Steffi Graff, Chris Evert, and Martina Navratilova.
Four times winning the Grand Slam double
Serena is without a doubt one of the greatest singles players in tennis history, but she has also had a prolific doubles career.
Williams has won 14 women’s grand slam doubles titles, all alongside her sister Venus Williams (Note: she also won two mixed doubles grand slams).
Six of her women’s doubles titles have come at the All England Club, where the sisters have collected numerous trophies and accolades.
Four of those tournaments resulted in the grand slam double, as Serena captured both the singles and doubles titles in the same year.
Williams managed the feat alongside her first singles win in 2002, and did so again in 2009, 2012, and 2016.
Winning Wimbledon after saving Match Point
11 women’s grand slam champions have won a major title after saving a match point (or points) at some stage of the tournament.
However, only Serena and Venus Williams have accomplished this at Wimbledon.
At the 2009 Wimbledon Championships, Serena, already a winner of 10 major singles titles, was immersed in a thrilling semi-final contest against Russia’s Elena Dementieva.
While Dementieva held a 6-7, 7-5, 5-4 lead and had a chance at match point, Williams was able to hold serve and come through and win the showdown.
Two days later, she defeated Venus 7-6, 6-2 to win the title.
Incredibly, this was not only time Serena Williams has stared down match point and won a major.
She saved two match points in the 2003 Australian Open semifinals against Kim Clijsters before eventually winning the tournament.
She also staved off three match points against Maria Sharapova in the 2005 Australian Open semifinals before defeating her 2-6, 7-5, 8-6.
She would then beat Lindsay Davenport to claim the title.
Played (and won) the longest Wimbledon semi-final match of the Open Era
Now, about that semi-final match between Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva…
There was additional history set in the epic 2009 affair.
The competitors shared the court for 2 hours, 49 minutes, producing the longest women’s semi-final match at the tournament since 1969.
Williams hit 20 aces and had 46 winners in the enthralling encounter and denied Dementieva perhaps her best ever chance at a major title.
Most aces at Wimbledon 2012
Serena Williams has been the most powerful and prolific server in the women’s game for the last two decades, but she especially elevated the shot to new heights in her 2012 Wimbledon run.
Williams surpassed the century mark for aces across seven matches, finishing with 102 over the two-week period and winning her fifth singles title at the All England Club at the time.
She defeated Poland’s Agniezska Radwanska 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 in the final, hitting 17 aces in that match.
This also included a rare golden game, where she hit four aces in succession to hold serve, and even surpassed Germany’s Phillipp Kohlschreiber, the leading man, who had 98 before losing in the quarterfinals.
Considering the men’s field is competing in a best 3-of-5 set format as opposed to best of three, this is even more incredible.
11 career finals at the All England Club
This year, Serena Williams is competing at the Wimbledon Championships for the 21st time in her career.
A testament to her consistency and greatness?
She has reached the championship match of the major in 11 of the 20 times she has competed.
Defeats are few and far between for Williams at the All England Club, where she has posted a career win/loss mark of 88-13.
She has gone 7-4 in finals.
The only opponents to beat Serena in the championship match are Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Venus Williams, and Maria Sharapova.
As we embark on the 2022 edition of The Championships Wimbledon, Serena will again have her eye on more records.
She is one major title away from tying Australia’s Margaret Court for the most singles grand slams all time.
