Serena Williams held her latest Wimbledon trophy over her head on Centre Court Saturday. She had just cruised past her opponent, Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 and was asked about how she felt after winning her 13th career Grand Slam win.

A student of her sport’s history, she pointed to Billie Jean King, sitting in the stadium, and acknowledged that she had finally passed one of her tennis heroes.

Serena captures 12th Grand Slam at 2010 French Open   Slideshow

With Serena reaching a new level of achievement it’s easy to forget that at her advanced age for the game she plays (28), she still has goals and shows no signs of slowing down.

Men’s quarterfinals: Federer goes down, Nadal moves on SLIDESHOW

Serena lost only 3 points on her serve during the entire match with Zvonareva. They played 17 games during which the minimum number of points played to win is 4. It is a display of power and skill that never gets old.

Zvonareva, playing in her very first Grand Slam final despite being on tour almost 9 years, was clearly disappointed with her performance. Nonetheless, she graciously and sincerely gave Serena credit for that.

Women’s semis feature Serena and Vera in slideshow

With a reputation for blowing up on the court when faced with adversity, Zvonareva righted that ship during the two weeks of 2010 Wimbledon. She showed poise and character when she needed to come from behind.

After making it back from a serious injury that threatened to derail her career, she invited her medical team to watch her play. She thanked them profusely for allowing her to be able to get to the level she did. Whether she builds off this performance is the big question facing Zvonareva this summer.

In a post-match interview Serena was asked why it seemed that her joyful celebration after the win was more gleeful than usual. Her answer was that she didn’t have to play her sister.

The Williams sisters make it difficult to watch their matches against each other

The matches between the sisters for a trophy are rarely spirited except in spurts and neither wants to exult in the other’s failure. It makes for an awkward experience for fans as well.

In the meantime, the dominance of Serena Williams in the world of women’s tennis will continue if she stays healthy and interested.

Ahead of her are the Grand Slam totals of Martina Navratilova with 18 ad, Steffi Graf with 22. We’ll see how she does at the next stop on the Grand Slam train, the U.S. Open in Queen, New York.

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Congratulazione I’ltalia! Francesca Schiavone, is the first professional tennis player from her country to win one of the four grand slam championships.

She fell to the red clay, then climbed into the stands to hug fans wearing tee-shirts proclaiming in English, “Schiavo: Nothing is Impossible”, She defeated Samantha Stosur in two sets, 6-4, 7-6(2).

Both competitors are veterans of at least ten years on the professional tour and reached the peak at the same tournament.

Stosur had vanquished both Justine Henin and Serena Williams to reach Saturday’s final match. Schiavone had to get past Na Li the 11th seed and one of the favorites to win, third seed, Caroline Wozniacki.

Stosur had a tough time handling the power of her opponent’s ground strokes as the match wore on. The Italian’s serves did not break down, even in the tie-break when it was clear both women were fatigued.

Schiavone proclaimed at the trophy ceremony:

“I prepared nothing to say now. If I did, I don’t think anything like this would happen.”

She then went on to prove that she didn’t need to worry about preparation, the words flowed in English and Italian.

John McEnroe declared on the television broadcast that the victory for Schiavone might help boost the efforts of the tennis organizations in that country. The Italians love tennis and have not been able to produce a major champion…until today.

As the World Cup is about to begin, the defending champion, Italy has a new prize to celebrate and Francesca Schiavone will forever be introduced as the woman’s champion of the 2010 French Open.

The men’s championship final will be played on Sunday featuring Rafael Nadal vs. Robin Sodeling.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC