" THE KING AND I "

 " SERENA WILLIAMS & ROGER FEDERER WINS THE 2012 WIMBELDON CHAMPIONSHIPS "

They now have 12 Wimbledon singles titles between them, as Roger Federer and Serena Williams are the newest (but not new) titleholders at The Championships. Federer became a men's-record-tying seven-time champ at the All England Club by outdueling British hopeful Andy Murray on Sunday, while Serena equaled her big sister Venus by capturing her fifth title with a predictable victory over third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the ladies' final on Saturday. This also marked the third time that Federer and Serena have garnered Wimbledon titles at the same fortnight (2003, 2009 and 2012).  The 30-year-old Federer padded his men's record with a 17th Grand Slam title by nailing down his first major championship in 2 1/2 years. And in the process, the Swiss legend triumphantly returned to the top of the men's rankings, supplanting Australian and U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic. The elegant Federer upset the powerful Serb in the semifinals last week on his way to tying Pete Sampras and William Renshaw with his seventh Wimbledon crown. Federer also matched Sampras' record of 286 weeks at No. 1.

Federer set yet another men's record by appearing in his eighth Wimbledon final (7-1). His only loss in that stage of the tournament came against Rafael Nadal four years ago in what many consider to be the greatest tennis match of all-time. Perhaps you do as well. The 30-year-old Serena, meanwhile, captured Grand Slam singles title No. 14, which is good enough for fourth place among the Mount Rushmore of women in the Open Era (since 1968). Only Steffi Graf (22), Martina Navratilova (18) and Chris Evert (18) have piled up more majors than Serena over the last 45 years. Obviously, there's something to be said for the 30-somethings here. Djokovic failed in his attempt to repeat as Wimbledon champ and also lost his No. 1 ranking in the process. Just last month, the swashbuckling Serb was within one match victory of holding all four Grand Slam titles. And now, just a month later, he only holds half of the Slams and has fallen to No. 2 in the world. Proof that it's a cruel world ... at least in terms of tennis. The 25-year-old Djokovic managed, however, to reach a ninth straight Grand Slam semifinal -- the longest current streak in the game.

The defending women's champion at the Big W was Czech bruiser Petra Kvitova, but it was guaranteed she would come up short this year when the left-hander gave way to Serena in straight sets in the quarterfinals. The French Open superman that is Nadal headed to Wimbledon 2012 as the favorite, but he crashed out mightily in the second round, where he was shocked by unheralded big-serving Czech Lukas Rosol in five sets under the roof on the famed Centre Court, which was covered on many occasions at this latest fortnight because of almost-daily rain in the London suburb. The 26-year-old Rosol was playing in the Wimbledon main draw for only the first time in his career. For the record, Rosol lost to German Philipp Kohlschreiber in his next match. Nadal had appeared in the final in his last five trips to Wimbledon, winning a pair of titles and finishing as a runner-up three times, including last year against Djokovic. Djokovic and Nadal had met in a men's-record four straight major finals before last week. And this most-recent Grand Slam finale was played without either one of 'em. Murray jacked up the home faithful by becoming the first British male to reach the Wimbledon final since Bunny Austin in 1938, but failed in his attempt to give the Brits their first men's champion there since Fred Perry way back in 1936.

source::themiamiherald/urbanmessmagazine