ITF

No. 1 as she faced Sloane Stephens, who had won her maiden Grand Slam singles title at the previous summer's US Open. Stephens had reached her second Grand Slam final by beating Madison Keys, who had also been on the losing side in the New York final. Halep responded superbly, however, to win 36 64 61. The return of Williams had been a major talking point at Roland Garros, the 36-year-old American having played only two comeback tournaments after taking a 14-month break to have her first child. Unseeded and ranked No. 451 in the world, Williams won three matches at Roland Garros but then withdrew because of a pectoral injury. Wimbledon made Williams the No 25 seed despite the fact that she was still ranked No. 181 in the world. The All England Club's faith was rewarded by some rapidly improving performances as Williams, chasing an eighth Wimbledon title, secured a rematch of her 2016 final against Kerber. Both finalists were helped, nevertheless, by some remarkable results in the early rounds, including victories for Su-Wei Hsieh, Alison van Uytvanck, Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Alexandra Dulgheru over Halep, Muguruza, Petra Kvitova and Venus Williams respectively. For the first time since seedings were introduced in 1927 there were no Top 10 seeds in the quarterfinals. Kerber, however, still had to beat some tough opponents, including Naomi Serena Williams comni doleni to nulpa debiscia cus dendio quatquo digenda ipsam sintior Marco Cecchinato's run to the Roland Garros semifinals was a highlight of the tournament Su-Wei Hsieh shocked Simona Halep in the third round at Wimbledon The All England Club's faith in Serena Williams was rewarded by some rapidly improving performances At Wimbledon, Serena Williams reached her first final since giving birth 33 Osaka, Daria Kasatkina and Jelena Ostapenko, who made up for her first-round defeat in Paris, where she had been defending the title, by reaching her first Wimbledon semifinal. Kerber went on to beat Williams 63 63 in the final in just 65 minutes. After an excellent year in 2016, when she won the Australian and US Opens and became world No. 1, Kerber had had a moderate 2017, by the end of which she had fallen outside the world's Top 20. However, her form picked up immediately in 2018 following the recruitment of Wim Fissette as her coach. She was the first German Grand Slam singles champion since Steffi Graf won the last of her seven Wimbledon titles in 1996. While it was no surprise to see the name 'Bryan' on the roll of honour at Wimbledon, it was the first time that Mike Bryan won a Grand Slam men's doubles title without his twin brother, Bob, who was absent with a hip injury. Mike and his fellow American, Jack Sock, beat Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus 63 67(7) 63 57 75 in the final. Bryan equalled ➝

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