Kerber has beaten Williams in a Grand Slam final
It would be a squeeze, but you could just about fit all the women to have beaten Serena Williams in a major final into one of those rickshaws that take spectators from Southfields tube station to the All England Club. On Saturday, Williams will be playing in her 30th Grand Slam singles final, but it's a very select group to have defeated her at that stage of a major, comprising just five athletes: Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Sam Stosur, Angelique Kerber and Garbiñe Muguruza.
Understandably, this Centre Court re-match revives memories of the 2016 Wimbledon final when Williams defeated Kerber in straight sets. But you would imagine that Kerber is also recalling another Grand Slam final the pair contested, at the 2016 Australian Open, which the German won in three sets.
While Venus has beaten Serena in a couple of Slam finals, the other four women in that group have done so just once each. Can Kerber become the first woman whose surname is not Williams to eclipse Serena in two Slam finals? Can she hijack Williams' attempt to win an eighth Wimbledon title to put herself level with Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 majors?
Better and better
That's a view supported by the numbers. From the third round onwards of what is only her fourth tournament since returning from maternity leave, Williams has been making fewer unforced errors with each match. After committing 12 in her last-32 match against France's Kristina Mladenovic, she made 11 in her fourth round against Russian Evgeniya Rodina, and then just nine in coming from a set down to defeat Italy's Camila Giorgi in the quarter-finals. And then, in her semi-final against Germany's Julia Goerges, she produced an even tidier performance with only seven unforced errors.
In all, Williams has made 91 unforced errors at The Championships so far, 10 fewer than Kerber. She has also produced more winners, with 144 to 131.
The right side of 30
People in tennis used to talk about players being "the wrong side of 30" but, in an ageing sport, you don't hear that so much now. If anything, the wrong side of 30 at The Championships would be competitors in their teens and twenties. For only the second occasion in the Open era, the ladies' final features two players in their 30s, with Williams aged 36 and Kerber 30 years old. The only other occasion that two 30-plus players met for the Venus Rosewater Dish was when a 31-year-old Virginia Wade defeated 32-year-old Betty Stove for the 1977 title.
When you also consider that all of the gentlemen's singles semi-finalists are 30 or over - which had never happened before at a Grand Slam in the Open era - this has generally not been a brilliant summer for the tennis youth. Should Williams win, she would extend her record for being the oldest women's Grand Slam singles champion of the Open era, having taken last season's Australian Open when she was 35 years old. She would also become the fourth mother in the Open era to score a major singles title, after Court, Evonne Goolagong and Kim Clijsters.
First German champion for 22 years
If Steffi Graf was Fraulein Forehand, you might think of Kerber as Fraulein Focus. Graf lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish seven times, with her last victory coming in 1996. With her second appearance in a Wimbledon final, Kerber has given herself another opportunity to win and so become only the second German ladies' singles champion in the Open era. She would also be the third German winner of this event of all time, as Cilly Aussem was victorious in 1931.
Kerber eyes career Grand Slam
With her success at the 2016 Australian Open, and also at the US Open in the same year, she has already demonstrated her class on the hard courts of Melbourne and New York City. Beat Williams on the Centre Court lawn and she would then be just a clay court Roland-Garros title short of the full set.
