Kerber writes unexpected ending to Serena's storybook Wimbledon run

Having marched to the Wimbledon final in just her fourth tournament back from a yearlong maternity leave, 10 months after giving birth and then dealing with the complications of her delivery and recovering from blood clots in her lungs, Serena Williams had nothing left to prove on Saturday.

That doesn't mean she wasn't disappointed with the antsy, error-riddled performance she put forth in the final - where she was soundly beaten by a rock-solid Angelique Kerber, 6-3, 6-3 - but, despite having to swallow some tears in her post-match interview, Serena kept things in perspective.

"It was such an amazing tournament for me. I was really happy to get this far," the 23-time Grand Slam champ said. "It's obviously disappointing, but I can't be disappointed. I have so much to look forward to. I'm literally just getting started.

"I'm just me, and that's all that I can be. But to all the moms out there, I was playing for you today, and I tried. But Angelique played really well, she played out her mind."

There was no shame in losing to Kerber on this day, not when the German counterpuncher played so cleanly and intelligently, with such composure and clarity of purpose. Much of what happened to Serena's game over the course of the match can be attributed to Kerber, who steadily unwound her with defense, forced her into some disastrous misadventures at the net, moved her around with pristine redirects, and ended points with stinging forehands down the line.

Serena's ball-striking was largely back to its usual standard this fortnight, but Kerber exposed the fact that her footwork and movement - particularly her north-south movement - still has a ways to go. There were moments when Serena seemed poised to take control of the match, namely in the third game of the second set when she started crushing angry groundstrokes and screaming "Come on!" and damn near took Kerber's head off with a swing volley that seemed intended to send a message. But she just couldn't sustain it for more than a game at a time.

With Serena mistiming drive volleys, reaching for dipping cross-court passing shots at her shoetops, and struggling to deal with the angles Kerber was using to make her hit balls on the stretch, the match was in many ways reminiscent of the pair's 2016 Aussie Open final. Kerber went back to the well that proved so fruitful in Melbourne, drawing Serena forward to set up the kill - either making her hit a tricky volley or passing her outright. Serena won just 12 of 24 points at the net, mainly because Kerber saw to it that Serena was not approaching on her own terms.

Kerber hung well back to receive serve and put nearly every return back in play. Her own serve figured to be vulnerable against Serena's aggressive return, but she wound up winning nearly as high a share of her second-serve points (59 percent) as Serena did on first serve (63 percent). Through it all, Kerber barely put a foot wrong, had hardly any mishits or tactical miscalculations, and never seemed to tighten up, doubt herself, or stray from her game plan. Sure, Serena helped her out some, but there's no arguing that Kerber was a deserving champion. Serena certainly acknowledged it, as the two exchanged a warm embrace and words the way they had at their previous two meetings in major finals.

Kerber's triumph was the culmination of a different sort of comeback. She didn't have to work her way back into match shape after carrying and then delivering a child and missing a full year on tour, but she did have to recover mentally from a nightmarish 2017 season in which she didn't beat a top-30 opponent until September and failed to win a single title. She's returned with a vengeance this year, proving definitively that 2017 was the aberration, not her breakout 2016. But she's also applied the lessons she absorbed from that miserable campaign.

"I think without 2017 I couldn't win this tournament," Kerber said after the match. "I think I learned a lot from last year, with all the expectation and all the things I go through. I learned so many things about myself. I try to enjoy every single moment now."

With her first Wimbledon title, she continues to build on one of the great late-career breakthroughs we've ever seen. Two years ago, at 28, Kerber had never even reached a major final. Now, she's a three-time Slam champ, a former world No. 1, just the second woman ever to beat Serena twice in a Slam final, and a French Open shy of a career Grand Slam.

For Serena, it wasn't the storybook ending to her tournament that she and so many others surely expected and hoped to see written. But, as her sister Venus once elucidated after experiencing a similarly disappointing outcome, "not everything can end fairy-tale."

Already the all-time Open-era leader in Slam titles, Serena was seeking to become the fourth mother ever to win a major, and nothing about the way she played at Wimbledon suggests that won't happen in the near future.

"You are such an inspiration for all of us, for all the people who are watching you," Kerber told Serena in her post-match interview. "I'm sure you will have your next Grand Slam title soon. I'm really, really sure."

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)