TheCable

Simona Halep, Romanian tennis player, delivered a crushing 6-2 6-2 win over Serena Williams to win her first Wimbledon Open title at the All England Club on Saturday afternoon.

The Romanian, 27, won only her second Grand Slam title of her career, but denied Serena Williams a record-equaling 24th Grand Slam title in Tennis history.

The capacity crowd, expecting a historic day for Serena on Centre Court, were stunned by the dominance of Halep, a performance that consigned the 37-year-old American to her third Grand Slam final loss within a year.

Just like in last year’s final she lost to Angelique Kerber who raced to a 4-0 lead, Serena let the expectation of a crowd looking to cheer her possible historic win weigh her down. The dominant half of the famed Williams sisters did not win a break point while she got broken in 50% of hers.

The determined Halep who had only won once against her much illustrious opponent, kept the rallies long, broke on Serena’s first two games to open a 4-0 lead before taking the first set 6-2 in 26 minutes, at the expense of a shell-shocked Williams.

Although the mother-of-one, Serena, improved in the second set, holding serve in the first four games at 2-2, she couldn’t keep up mentally and physically with the visibly fitter and domineering Halep who won the next four games to claim her first All England title, closing out the second set in thirty minutes.

Serena Williams would have another shot at history in the final Grand Slam of the year on home soil, the US Open, which begins in late August.