Garbiñe Muguruza wins 2017 Wimbledon women’s championship

Garbiñe Muguruza has beaten Venus Williams to win her second Grand Slam and first title at Wimbledon, winning in straight sets, 7-5, 6-0.

Muguruza and Williams fought a very close first set, but things quickly got out of hand for Williams in the second set. Williams looked drained and defeated early in the second and never was able to recover.

On her way to the final, Muguruza took down top seed Angelique Kerber and seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the semifinals, she bested Magdalena Rybarikova, a surprise unseeded who was playing some of the best tennis of her career.

Going into their match, Muguruza had appeared in the final of Wimbledon once previously, and her only Grand Slam win was at the French Open in 2016. Williams, on the other hand, had won seven singles Grand Slam titles, and five trophies at Wimbledon specifically.

Williams had also won three of four meetings between the two, though this was their first ever on grass courts. Muguruza had won their only other meeting in 2017, on the clay courts of Rome.

Instead, Muguruza captured her second Grand Slam and all the glory.

Things were on serve and there was little danger of a break either way until Williams was serving with things at 3-3. Muguruza had a couple break point opportunities, but Williams fought them off to keep things on serve, and held.

Williams had a set point opportunity while threatening to break Muguruza, and they had a fantastic 19-shot rally that was ultimately won by Muguruza. But that put things at 40-30 for Williams, so there was another set point attempt. Muguruza got to deuce, though, and then held, getting things to 5-5.

Then it was Mugurza threatening a break as Williams hit a forehand unforced error. Another long volley ensued and Muguruza wound up taking the break with a forced error on Williams’ forehand. That had Muguruza serving for the set, and she took it, winning with yet another Williams unforced error, this one on her backhand.

From there, things unraveled for Williams quickly. She double faulted on a Muguruza break point on her opening serve of the second set, and Muguruza easily held to go up 2-0. She then broke Williams again with a beautiful backhand winner, and held again to go up 4-0 in the set.

Muguruza eventually went up 5-0 and served for the set. She got it without issue, getting the win.

On Sunday, the men’s final between No. 3 Roger Federer and No. 7 Marin Cilic will take place.