Garbine Muguruza defeated Venus Williams in the final at the All England Club on Saturday. The 2016 French Open champion cruised to victory, posting a 7-5, 6-0 victory over the American. The final point of the match was won via a line-call challenge, possibly a late one, as Muguruza correctly eyeballed a long ball off of Williams' racket. The result sees The Spaniard claim her second Grand Slam singles title and it ends, with emphasis, an extended poor stretch of play that lasted just over a year.
Muguruza slumped after winning the French Open
Last year Muguruza won the French Open, defeating Serena Williams in the championship match.
Shortly thereafter, it was clear that she just wasn't herself any longer. She immediately started posting weak results, including a first-round exit at Mallorca 2016. She was a non-factor at the 2016 Rio Olympics and, in the four Grand Slams that were played between Roland Garros 2016 and Wimbledon 2017, Muguruza had just one quarterfinal to show for her efforts.
Her palpable slump, that included loss after loss to low-ranked players in low-tiered tournaments, is arguably a big factor in the ascension of Karolina Pliskova. The Czech player will be top ranked on Monday despite having two less career Grand Slam titles compared to the Spaniard. However, Muguruza's slump can officially be called "over" as she survived a draw through Angelique Kerber, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Williams in winning tennis' biggest title.
The result will see Muguruza back in the top five on Monday, about 2000 ranking points behind of Pliskova.
Back to reality for Williams
For Williams, the loss means that her dreams of winning a grand slam title at the ripe-old age of 37 are over, at least for the time being. In an era of women's tennis where Serena Williams is off tour pregnant, where Maria Sharapova deals with the aftermath of her drug suspension, and where both Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka are both mid-comeback, Venus found an opening on the bottom half of the Wimbledon 2017 draw that was devoid of a challenger that might be called "great."
Having fallen in the final of the Australian Open earlier this season, you have to wonder what Venus' chances will be like in future majors.
After all, Sharapova, Kvitova, and Azarenka are only going to become bigger factors on the women's tour as the year progresses. When those players get back to form, don't expect any one of them to be as lenient with a 37-year old former No. 1 as Johanna Konta, Ana Konjuh, and Jelena Ostapenko were.