Wimbledon 2018 women's final: Serena Williams vs. Angelique Kerber

Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber after the 2016 Wimbledon women’s singles final. (Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)

The Royals are here

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, are in attendance to watch the women’s single final. The Duchess of Sussex and Serena Williams are close friends. Meghan came to Wimbledon in 2016 to support Williams, and Williams attended the Duchess’s wedding to Prince Harry in May.

The Duchess of Cambridge, tagged a tennis enthusiast, became the patron of Wimbledon in December 2016, relieving the Queen Elizabeth II of the duty.

Serena arrives

Prior to her match against Angelique Kerber, Serena Williams gets in some last minute preparation. The match will begin following the conclusion of the men’s second final match between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Wimbledon women’s singles final

Who: Serena Williams will face No. 11 seed Angelique Kerber, with Williams in pursuit of Margaret Court’s record of 24 career major titles. Williams, a seven-time winner at Wimbledon, would equal Court’s record if she can top Kerber in a rematch of the 2016 Wimbledon final. (She is 23-6 in Grand Slam finals.) Kerber, 30, a former world No. 1, has claimed two Grand Slam titles, both in 2016.

Williams, 36, won her last Grand Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open while about eight weeks pregnant. She missed the next four majors, returned at the French Open this spring, but had to drop out of that event because of a pectoral injury before a scheduled round-of-16 match. It was her first withdrawal from singles competition during a major tournament.

When: The women’s final was scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, but that start time could be pushed back by the conclusion of the second men’s semifinal. That Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal match, which Djokovic leads two sets to one, will resume at 8 a.m. Eastern, with the winner facing South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in Sunday’s men’s final. Saturday’s women’s final will start after the conclusion of the men’s match.

[Exceeding even her own expectations, Serena Williams rolls into Wimbledon final]

How to watch on TV: ESPN will air the women’s final live. Chris Fowler will have the play-by-play, and Chris Evert will be the analyst. The match is also scheduled to re-air on ABC at 3 p.m. Eastern, and on ESPNEWS at 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

How to stream: You can watch coverage of the women’s final on The Wimbledon Channel or on the WatchESPN app.

Wimbledon showings: Williams is playing in her 18th main draw at Wimbledon, and has now reached an astonishing 10 finals. She won the women’s singles titles in 2015 and 2016 — her previous two appearances — and has now won 20 straight matches there, equaling the longest streak of her career. That previous stretch came from 2002 to 2004, when Williams won consecutive titles before losing in the 2004 final. Kerber, from Germany, is at her 11th Wimbledon, but advanced to the semifinals for just the third time this year. Like Williams, she has dropped just one set in this year’s tournament.

The 2016 final: Williams found history in her last Wimbledon meeting with Kerber, equaling Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles with her 7-5, 6-3 victory. The Post’s Chuck Culpepper chronicled her dominance in that match:

Through a high-quality match with vivid rallies that drew gasps from the audience, her serve kept carrying her over any rocks. She faced only one break point — the only one she faced in the last three rounds — in the seventh game of the second set. She cleared that away with a 117-mph ace to the doubles line. She blasted 13 aces to Kerber’s zero. Unreturned serves went 27-12.

“I try everything,” Kerber said. . . .

[In the final game, Williams] placed and blasted three first serves — 94 mph, 114, 101 — on which the ball only ticked Kerber’s racket. At 40-love, she produced a backhand volley and a forehand volley (part of her 16-4 advantage in net points) that left her tumbling to the grass before joining Kerber in a long, respectful hug.

Kerber had previously beaten Williams in the 2016 Australian Open final.

The story line: If Williams’s pursuit of a 24th Grand Slam title and eighth Wimbledon crown isn’t enough, there’s also her rocky yet remarkable return from a difficult childbirth less than a year ago. As The Post’s Liz Clarke detailed this week, her past year included “a recurrence of life-threatening blood clots after her emergency Caesarean section,” extended bed rest during which she could barely walk, and then a halting return to competition.

Because of her absence, she’s now ranked 181st in the world, making her “the lowest-ranked woman in the Open era to reach a semifinal at Wimbledon,” according to the tournament. She wasn’t given a seed at the French Open, prompting a debate about how tournaments should handle maternity leave for top female players. Wimbledon awarded Williams the 25th seed. The final will be just her 14th match of 2018.

Read more Wimbledon coverage from The Post:

At Wimbledon, lasting memories are made before the final match begins

There is grace off the court at Wimbledon, too. Nadal, del Potro and Federer prove it.

Kevin Anderson edges John Isner in exhausting Wimbledon semifinal

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