Kerber shocks Serena in Aussie Open final to win 1st Grand Slam

No. 22 will have to wait.

One major title shy of tying Steffi Graf's Open Era record, Serena Williams was stunned in the Australian Open final by world No. 7 Angelique Kerber, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a twisting, turning, pulse-pounding epic.

Saturday's upset was unprecedented for too many reasons to name, but here are a few: It was the first time Williams has lost an Aussie Open final, in this, her seventh appearance. It was the first time she's lost a deciding set in any major final, after winning her first eight. It was only the fifth time she's even lost a major final, and the first time since 2011, ending a run of seven straight wins. It's Kerber's first career Grand Slam title, and she's the first German woman to win one since Graf did so for the 22nd and final time in 1999.

Related: Serena, Kerber share embrace and kind words after Aussie Open stunner

Kerber - who will move up to No. 2 in the world - joked before the match that she felt a responsibility to safeguard her countrywoman's legacy. Few people actually expected her to do it. But the 28-year-old first-time finalist served notice from the opening game that she wasn't daunted by the moment. She came out playing loose as a goose, while Williams was tight as piano wire.

The world No. 1 was completely out of sorts in the first set, struggling to land first serves (a recurring theme throughout the match), producing sloppy footwork, mishitting overheads, and sailing routine put-aways with wild swinging volleys. The unforced-error count in the set read 23-3 in Williams' favor.

Meanwhile, Kerber's herculean sideline-to-sideline retrieving kept putting the pressure on Williams to come up with shots. Even the points Williams won, she often had to hit five or six good balls to put Kerber away. The match became a showcase of brilliantly geometric tennis, with each player doing her best to angle the other out with increasingly acute crosscourt strokes as the crowd let out increasingly incredulous gasps. Williams started approaching to try to shorten the points Kerber kept extending with her legs, and Kerber said thank you very much, and passed her time and time again.

She had plenty of opportunities to crack, to start doubting herself, to suddenly realize the magnitude of what she was attempting to do. Lord knows she's done that before. But this tournament has revealed a different Kerber, one that rises to the occasion rather than shrinks from it. She was a point away from being eliminated by unseeded Misaki Doi in the first round. After saving match point, she won every subsequent set she played until Williams won the second to level the final.

The third set was a heart-stopping pressure cooker, with breaks trading hands freely as points grew more and more frenzied. It was the debutante who played bravest when the points were biggest, and the 21-time champion who showed her nerves, hitting tentatively and guiding the ball instead of driving it. In the sixth game of the set, the two played to a standstill for 11 minutes, navigating five deuces while Serena warded off four break points. Twice in that game, Kerber busted out brass-nerved drop shots from behind the baseline. Twice Williams stood stunned as the ball flopped onto her side of the net, well out of reach. After the second one erased a game point, a rattled Williams double-faulted. Kerber clinched the break with a scathing return on the next point.

It was a disappointing and at times bizarre performance from Williams, who romped to the final without dropping a set, or even once getting into any kind of real trouble. One of the things that stood out about her first six matches was how calm and quiet she was. No expressions of disbelief or self-disgust, no hair-raising howls of "Come on!", not even exuberant victory celebrations. Just a slight smile, a half-hearted twirl, and a wag of the finger. She had no need for histrionics; she was cruising.

The match against Kerber much more closely resembled one of her 2015 matches, when she'd get herself into trouble and then drag herself out of it by sheer force of will. She hollered and shrieked and bounced around between points, but as happened against Roberta Vinci in last year's US Open semifinal, she couldn't quite get all the way out this time. Kerber was too tough, too steady, too determined.

All night she'd made Williams hit more shots than she was comfortable with. Eventually, Williams folded. When her last volley drifted past the baseline, Kerber dropped to her back on the blue plexicushion, a Grand Slam champion for the first time.