Wimbledon 2016: Double victory for Serena Williams as she and older sister Venus win Championship titles

Serena Williams won her record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title by beating Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon final on Saturday.

Williams pulled even with Steffi Graf for the most major championships in the Open era, which began in 1968. Now Williams stands behind only Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24.

This was Williams’ 7th singles trophy at the All England Club and second in a row. Her victory at Wimbledon a year ago raised her Grand Slam count to 21, but while she came close to adding to that total since, she could not quite do it.

There was a stunning loss to Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semifinals in September, ending Williams’ bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam. Then came losses in finals to Kerber at the Australian Open in January, and to Garbine Muguruza at the French Open last month.

But in the rematch against the 4th-seeded Kerber at Center Court on Saturday — the first time in a decade 2 women met to decide multiple major titles in a single season — the No. 1-ranked Williams came through.

The 34-year-old American did it, as she often does, with nearly impeccable serving. She slammed 13 aces, including at least one in each of her first eight service games. She won 38 of 43 points when she put a first serve in.

And she faced just one break point — at 3-all in the second set, it represented Kerber’s only real opening — and shut the door quickly and emphatically, with a pair of aces at 188 kph (117 mph) and 199 kph (124 mph), her fastest of the afternoon.

There was more that Williams did well, though. So much more. Facing the left-handed Kerber’s reactive, counter-punching style, Williams was by far the more aggressive player, trying to make things happen. And she did, compiling a big edge in winners, 39-12.

Williams later teamed up with older sister Venus to win a women’s doubles final that began a little more than 3 hours after the singles final ended Saturday.

The siblings won their 6th doubles championship at the All England Club and 14th as a pair at all Grand Slam tournaments by beating 5th-seeded Timea Babos of Hungary and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4.

The Williams sisters also won doubles titles at Wimbledon in 2000, 2002, 2008, 2009 and 2012. Each time, one or the other also won the singles championship, with Serena doing it in 2002, 2009 and 2012 in addition to this year.

They are planning to compete in doubles, in addition to singles, at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics next month. They already have won 3 gold medals in doubles, at the 2000, 2008 and 2012 Summer Games.

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press