The score was 0-1 in the third set, and it all seemed to be coming apart for Serena Williams as she stepped to the baseline to serve. She had been in control of most of this final with Agnieszka Radwanska, had won the first five games, won the first set 6-1, and stood two games from the title at 4-2 in the second. But her opponent had hung around just long enough, and stayed just close enough, to make Serena anxious. Finally, stunningly, her nerves overcame her, and in a flurry of missed ground strokes and netted returns, she gave away the second set.
Could this continue in the third? Could she lose a match that had been so obviously hers just a few minutes earlier? Was Serena Williams, 13-time Grand Slam champ and paragon of swagger, really going to choke away Wimbledon to a major-final rookie? The wind, which had chosen that moment to kick up, seemed ominous, as did the look of strain on Serena’s face and the tension in her arm.
No, we learned in her service next game, Williams wasn’t going to give this away—this was Centre Court, after all, a place that she and her sister have turned into a second home over the last decade. At 0-1 in the third, Serena took a little off of her serve. She put a little air under her forehands. She played with as much control as she did aggression. And she wiped her face clean of the edge and emotion it had betrayed at the end of the second set. She held. The storm had passed.
Two games later, Serena hit four straight aces to hold again. At 2-2, she and Radwanska engaged in a series of long points, the type that Aga typically specializes in winning. This time, at 30-30, it was Serena who ended one of those points with a forehand winner. On the next point, she broke with a strong backhand return. There were no shrieks or fearsome fist-pumps from her this time, as there had been when she was trying to close out the second set. It was all about staying in control, with her game and her mind, for Serena now. This time she managed it. Williams held with a good second serve into Radwanska's body for 4-2, out-finessed the finesser with a well-disguised drop shot to break for 5-2, and ended it going away, with an ace—her 17th—a service winner, and a backhand winner for her fifth Wimbledon title, the 14th major of her career, and her first since 2010. Only then did Williams lose control, falling flat onto the court with relief, with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 win.
Credit Radwanska for turning this into a more competitive match than anyone expected. For most of the first set, we wondered if she would win a game; by 0-5, the specter of a double bagel hung over the stadium. By the beginning of the third set, there was a new specter hanging there—that of an epic upset. Radwanska did what she always does, mixing speeds and placements, and keeping Serena guessing. Radwanska hit few winners of her own (13, compared to Serena’s 58), and she was nervous herself—her five double faults were three more than she had thrown in all tournament. But she relaxed in the second set and made Serena work for it. For the past year, we’ve wondered how high Radwanska could rise with her crafty, underpowered game. Now she’s No. 2 in the world, and was a set from winning Wimbledon—there doesn’t seem to be a ceiling for her, after all.
For today, Radwanska’s achievement was to make Serena Williams seem human for a set. Serena’s achievement was to show us her human side, her nervous side, her less than supremely confident side, and then rise above it.