Serena Williams and Simona Halep are back on familiar territory. The former world No.1s and Grand Slam champions will cross paths again on Saturday, but for the first time in a Grand Slam final.
And while the Venus Rosewater Dish awaits the victor, there is a chasm over what’s at stake for each player.
Twelve months ago, Halep broke her Grand Slam final hoodoo to land the silverware at Roland-Garros when she came from behind to beat Sloane Stephens. After coming up short at the final hurdle three times previously, the weight of expectation had been lifted.
Meanwhile, only five months earlier, Williams had denied sister Venus to hoist the Daphne Ackhurst Memorial Cup Down Under for a seventh time. It marked her 23rd Grand Slam trophy and moved her to within one title of Margaret Court’s all-time record.
The pressure is considerably heavier on the 37-year-old now. Her defeats on Grand Slam stages since returning from the birth of daughter, Olympia, in 2017 have exposed vulnerability. The race against age is heating up.
Twice last year Williams capitulated in major finals in which she started a heavy favourite – at Wimbledon to Angelique Kerber and at Flushing Meadows to Naomi Osaka. Since reaching her first final in 1999, she has never lost three major finals in succession.
After resounding semi-final triumphs, Williams and Halep will meet for an 11th time. That head-to-head ledger reads a lop-sided 9-1 in the American great’s favour, with Halep’s lone victory coming at the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals in 2014.
There, on an indoor hard court in Singapore, she dished out a 6-0, 6-2 thrashing, one of only nine times in Williams’ career she has been 'bagelled'.
While the American responded emphatically, allowing the Romanian just three games in the final days later, it was the defeat that left a lasting impression.
“I think the biggest key with our matches is the loss that I had,” Williams said following her semi-final victory. “I never forgot it. She played unbelievable.
“That makes me know that level she played at, she can get there again. So I have to be better than that.”
The pair first did battle on the grass of the All England Club in the second round of the 2011 Championships. Williams, coming off 11 months on the sidelines due to injury, defeated the 19-year-old debutante 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.
It would be two years before the pair would cross paths again. On the clay in Rome and on a hard court in Cincinnati, Williams was at her ruthless best, never conceding more than four games.
But since sharing victories at the 2014 season-ending championships, three of their five showdowns have gone the distance.
Williams was on an unbeaten 19-match streak after defeating Halep for the WTA Finals title in 2014 when the duo met in the 2015 Miami semi-finals. Williams prevailed in a classic, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, en route to the title.
Two subsequent meetings on US hard courts went the way of the American – in the 2015 Cincinnati final and the 2016 Indian Wells quarter-finals – before she claimed arguably the pair’s finest battle, a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 quarter-final thriller at the 2016 US Open.
Three years passed before their 10th and most recent encounter. That came in the fourth round at this year’s Australian Open, where Williams brought down the then world No.1, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
Halep knows she has closed the gap and will be wise to the fact that her opponent has faltered with history in sight before.
“I have learned that I have the chance,” the Romanian said. “Now, if I face her, I will believe that I have my chance to win against her.
“Of course, I respect a lot what she has done and what she's doing. But now I feel stronger mentally facing her. I'm desperate to win Wimbledon more than to stop her.”