Serena Williams climbs 153 spots in WTA rankings to No 28

Her coach, Wim Fissette, deserves a lot of the credit, having begun working with Kerber at the end of 2017, after a successful but short spell with Britain’s Johanna Konta.

However, it was a short-lived fight back as Kerber broke the seven-time Wimbledon Champion twice to secure the first set.

When asked if the delayed start to the women’s final had any impact on hr preparations, she pointed out that throughout the whole tournament, she had never had a first match on start time.

Williams, 37, has said that her daughter is her new priority and that motherhood “changes the game” … in a good way.

Williams was looking to win her 24th Slam singles title, equalling Margaret Court’s all-time record. And Williams with his head held high went on another half court to congratulate the victor.

We had some nice moments past year in her absence but I am very happy it’s Kerber and Williams fighting for the Wimbledon championships.

Williams had been favoured to draw level on Saturday but, despite turning 37 in September and suffering only her third defeat in 10 finals at The All England Club, the former world No.1 maintains more majors are still to come. She also wanted to win, of course.

The 27-year-old reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and was ranked as high as fourth in the world immediately afterwards.

“You two are such an inspiration to the world!” said another. “I told her I will be performing the coin toss and she said “so I will be seeing you later”. “I was really happy to get this far”.

Djokovic will face Kevin Anderson in the final tonight.

And it will be no surprise who one of the royals will be cheering on – although she may need to hold back on the celebrations this time. That was part of a run in which she dropped 8 of 9 points. She had a daughter, Marika, in 1974 and again returned to the tour, but there would be no more grand slam trophy success. There are no holes. Kerber’s serve can really shake. She’s always able to raise her level.

Kerber is much more than a defender. To all the mum’s out there, I was playing for you today and I tried’.

Hinting that fans could expect Serena to return to the court in the near future, Alexis insisted that she was “just getting started”.

Kerber was broken only once. Her powerful physique is called “manly”, she’s ridiculed for her muscular arms, she’s had monkey noises made at her during matches.

Following the landmark moment, she tweeted: “She took her first steps …”

Speaking in a press conference earlier this week, she confessed: ‘It was so positive.