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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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