Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova 6–0, 6–1 on Centre Court at Wimbledon to take Olympic singles gold on 4 August 2012. With doubles gold won alongside Venus, she became the only player ever to complete the career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles.
Thirty minutes to a bagel
The first set lasted only 30 minutes. Williams attacked Sharapova’s second serve and closed the fifth game with an ace. When Sharapova built a 40-0 lead trying to stay in the set, Williams fought back, landed a backhand winner for set point, and forced an error to take it 6–0.
A flicker of defiance, then a chalk mark
Williams broke again early in the second set to lead 3–0. Sharapova held serve after 45 minutes and later earned a break point. Williams responded with a fierce angled shot that video replay showed had ticked the line, and Sharapova’s face dropped as the point stood.
The American closed the second set 6–1. The whole final took 62 minutes, the most lopsided women’s final in Olympic history.
A path cut with few concessions
Williams lost only 17 games across six matches that week and never more than three in any set. It was part of a 13–0 summer on Wimbledon’s grass, coming a month after her fifth title at the Championships. Steffi Graf had achieved the singles Golden Slam in 1988; Williams joined her and then added the doubles dimension that only she possessed.
Embrace from a flying flag
"I remember I was serving and I was thinking: ‘Serena, this is your best chance to win a gold medal,’" she told reporters afterwards. Her 14 major singles titles at the time were already the most of any active woman, but the Olympic singles crown had stayed out of reach until that London week.
When a gust of wind blew the American flag off its pole during the medal ceremony, she smiled and imagined it was flying to hug her. The afternoon had made the one missing piece of silverware finally hers.
