Garbine Muguruza beats Venus Williams to win Wimbledon title
Written by News on 16/07/2017
Spain’s Garbine Muguruza won her first Wimbledon title and ended Venus Williams’ hopes of becoming the oldest Grand Slam champion in Saturday’s women’s final.
Muguruza beat the in-form Williams in their first meeting on grass 7-5 6-0 as the Spanish 14th seed emulated her coach Conchita Martinez’s memorable triumph in 1994 and made up for her own pain of losing to Serena Williams two years ago to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish.
Back in the All England Club final after an eight-year absence, Williams, 37, was hoping to become both the oldest Wimbledon and major winner since the Open era began in 1968, but was unable to claim a sixth Wimbledon title as Muguruza’s power proved too hot to handle.
Williams created the first opening of what was turning into a slug-fest in the fifth game, but she netted a presentable opportunity on the forehand side.
The 23-year-old held before driving her forehand long with her own break point chance in the next game.
Under the Centre Court roof it was Williams who turned the screw with some juicy groundstrokes to earn two set points. But the Spaniard held steady following a tumultuous 19-shot rally to come through under immense pressure.
And Muguruza made Williams pay with a break in the 11th game before delighting her temporary coach for Wimbledon, Martinez, by holding an intensely physical service game to take it 7-5 after 51 minutes of action.
A double fault by veteran Williams handed Muguruza a break at the start of the second set as she began to crumble.
Two more breaks of Williams’ serve followed as Muguruza took a stranglehold of the final as Venus seemed to hit a mental and physical wall and she closed out a bagel set with a successful Hawk-Eye challenge to put the beleaguered American out of her misery.
Muguruza will take home a cool £2.2m in prize money, with runner-up Williams, in the Wimbledon final for the first time in eight years, netting £1.1m.
We will have the Wimbledon men’s final covered via our website skysports.com/tennis then click through to our dedicated section skysports.com/tennis/wimbledon.
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(c) Sky News 2017: Garbine Muguruza beats Venus Williams to win Wimbledon title
