Serena wins Wimbledon for record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title

Steffi Graf finally has company.

Serena Williams matched Graf's Open era record by capturing her 22nd Grand Slam title Saturday on Centre Court, avenging her Australian Open loss to Angelique Kerber in the process. Serena defeated the German southpaw 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final to claim her seventh career championship at the All England Club.

Get off my lawn

It was a high-quality, competitive match from the outset, and Serena showed no trace of the nerviness that plagued her in Melbourne. Using the quicker grass court to her advantage, she came out swinging from the heels, opening up the court by pulling Kerber out wide, snuffing out daylight with timely and decisive dashes to the net, and even employing the slice to great effect. Most importantly, she was absolutely cranking her serve, and Kerber never managed to come up with a solution.

Serena fired 13 aces, won all but five of her first-serve points, and faced just one break point. She hit 39 winners to Kerber's 12. After getting passed repeatedly in the Australian Open final, she made a point of moving forward faster and giving Kerber less of an angle with her approach shots. The result: Serena won 16 of 22 points at the net.

To her credit, Kerber hung incredibly tough throughout it all. She wasn't tentative; she didn't shrink, or capitulate, or play not to lose - though she still committed just nine unforced errors. She held the baseline and absorbed Serena's power - even when it knocked her right over - with crouching groundstrokes that took her all the way down to the grass. When the opportunity presented itself, she shrunk her margins and went for her shots, sometimes even to her detriment. Nearly as impressive as Serena's dominant first-serve performance, was that Kerber somehow won 68 percent of her second-serve points.

After warding off three break points in her opening service game, Kerber didn't face another until she served at 5-6. That's when Serena finally broke through with a set-clinching, inside-out forehand that Kerber had to scamper off screen just to get her racket on.

The turning point

Momentum never really changed hands in the match, but there was a moment in which it looked like it might.

The second set followed the same pattern as the first, with Kerber admirably holding but unable to make any headway in Serena's service game. She finally earned her first break point in the seventh game of the set. Converting it could've changed the entire complexion of the match. Kerber didn't even get a chance. Serena blasted a 117-mph ace out wide, then a 124-mph ace up the T, before finally forcing a backhand miss after a punishing baseline exchange.

The very next game, she broke from 40-15 down after firing back a series of searing returns Kerber couldn't put back in play. From there, it was over in a blink. Serena cracked three straight service winners to set up triple match point, and capped it off with a put-away volley.

The reaction

After Serena knocked that match-winning volley into the open court, she fell backward onto the patch of grass that bore witness to her record-tying feat.

Then she got up to embrace her opponent, as she'd done in defeat five months earlier, before throwing up two fingers on each hand to mark her incredible Grand Slam tally.

"It's been incredibly difficult not to think about it," Serena said of winning her 22nd major, which she'd failed to accomplish in her first three attempts. "It makes the victory even sweeter to know how hard I had to work for it."