Wimbledon 2019: Day 12, Match Points

WEATHER

The final is on Saturday, 13 July at 2pm local time, when warm, dry weather with light clouds and a temperature of 22°C are forecast.

LEARNING

Serena Williams leads the head-to-head against Simona Halep 9-1, including 3-0 in Grand Slams and 1-0 on grass - their first ever meeting, in the second round of Wimbledon 2011, which Williams won 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Halep's sole victory was a 6-0, 6-2 stunner in round robin play at the 2014 WTA Finals - one of only nine times Williams has been bagelled in her career, but avenged 6-3, 6-0 by the American in the final of the same tournament. Three of the pair's five matches since then have gone to three sets, including a high-quality fourth-round encounter at this year's Australian Open, which Williams took 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Wimbledon 2019 is the third final Williams and Halep have contested following the 2014 WTA Finals and Cincinnati 2015, won by Williams 6-3, 7-6(5).

Gallery: Rivalry record: Serena Williams vs Simona Halep

Serena Williams, who holds the Open Era record for total number of Grand Slam championships, will tie Margaret Court's historic record of 24 with victory in the final. Williams's record in major finals is 23-8, and 7-3 at Wimbledon. A win would also put Wimbledon out front as the site where she has won the most Slams; her current distribution is seven apiece at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, six at the US Open and three at Roland Garros.

Simona Halep is the first Romanian Wimbledon finalist in history. She will be playing her fifth Grand Slam final; the 2018 Roland Garros champion's record at this stage is 1-3. Halep has become the fifth active player to reach the final of three of the four majors, joining Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and Angelique Kerber.

Gallery: The one and only: First Romanian Halep and the other lone national representatives in an Open Era Wimbledon final

Serena Williams has now made at least one Grand Slam final for the past 13 years in a row since 2007 - a streak second only to Chris Evert's Open Era record of 14 consecutive years between 1973 and 1986.

Simona Halep is guaranteed to be the new World No.4 in next week's rankings regardless of the final result, returning to the Top 5 five weeks after falling out of it for the first time since May 2017. Serena Williams is guaranteed to rise to her highest post-maternity leave ranking: she will be World No.9 with a loss and World No.8 with a win.

Serena Williams is bidding to become the second straight No.11 seed (who is actually ranked World No.10) to win Wimbledon following Angelique Kerber's 2018 victory.

Simona Halep will be the 17th different Grand Slam final opponent Serena Williams has faced in her career. Of those, Williams has a losing record against three (0-1 to Samantha Stosur and Naomi Osaka, 1-2 to Angelique Kerber), a tied record of 1-1 against Garbiñe Muguruza and a winning record over the remaining 12 (7-2 over Venus Williams, 3-1 over Maria Sharapova, 2-0 over Victoria Azarenka and 1-0 over Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Justine Henin, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki and Lucie Safarova).

Gallery: 23 and counting: Serena Williams's Slam wins

A win for Serena Williams would be the fifth occasion on which the former World No.1 has won a Grand Slam after losing the previous year's final, following the 2002 and 2012 US Opens, Wimbledon 2009 and the 2017 Australian Open. In the Open Era, only 10 other players have pulled this feat off, with Chris Evert having done it the most times with six and Williams currently tied on four with Stefanie Graf. The other beaten finalists who lifted the trophy the following year are Martina Navratilova (who did this three times), Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Jana Novotna, Justine Henin, Ana Ivanovic, Li Na, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep.

Simona Halep's overall record in finals is 18-17, though she has lost her last three - Cincinnati 2018 to Kiki Bertens, Doha 2019 to Elise Mertens and Madrid 2019 to Bertens again. Serena Williams's overall record is 72-22, and she has lost her last two - Wimbledon 2018 to Angelique Kerber and the 2018 US Open to Naomi Osaka.

Serena Williams and Simona Halep have faced one seeded player each en route to the final: Williams defeated No.18 seed Julia Goerges in the third round and Halep beat No.8 seed Elina Svitolina in the semifinals. Halep will be the first Top 10 player Williams has faced this fortnight - indeed, since her loss to Karolina Pliskova in the Australian Open quarterfinals since January. Williams will be the second Top 10 player Halep has faced at The Championships this year, and the second Grand Slam champion following her third-round defeat of Victoria Azarenka.

Serena Williams has hit the most aces out of the field at this year's Championships, totalling 45 through six singles matches; she has also struck the fastest serve of the tournament, a 122mph rocket against Giulia Gatto-Monticone. Simona Halep has hit nine aces, and her fastest service speed was 110mph (once against Mihaela Buzarnescu and once against Elina Svitolina). Williams has won 63 out of 101 points at net (62.4%) and spent eight hours and 10 minutes on court; Halep has won 29 out of 47 points at net (61.7%) and spent eight hours and 33 minutes on court. However, Halep's efficiency in the forecourt has taken a sharp upturn in the second week, going from 40% (eight out of 20) in her first three matches to 77.8% (21 out of 27) in her last three.

Read more: Beyond Svitolina: Behind the scenes of Ukraine's surge in tennis talent

In the girls' final, No.10 seed Alexa Noel will take on the unseeded Daria Snigur in a repeat of last week's Roehampton Grade 1 final, won by Snigur 6-1, 6-2 as part of the 17-year-old Ukrainian's current 11-match winning streak in juniors. Snigur has also impressed in her professional outings this season, compiling a 16-4 win-loss record - including her first ITF W25 title in Kashiwa in April - and rising to World No.423. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Noel has compiled a 5-3 record in the pros this year, with her junior highlight coming with the Grade A title in Milan in April. Snigur is aiming to become the first Ukrainian girls' champion at Wimbledon since Kateryna Bondarenko in 2004.

TRENDING

ORDER OF PLAY

For full order of play, visit wimbledon.com.

READING

Serena Williams's much-loved mixed doubles partnership with Andy Murray was key in sharpening up her singles game, writes Kevin Mitchell for The Guardian.

The first two games of Simona Halep's semifinal against Elina Svitolina were epics that set the tone for the match, writes Mert Ertunga in a tactical analysis of the match for Tennis With An Accent.

One of the keys to Serena Williams's noteworthy success against opponents who have beaten her is that she "never lets her guard down again", argues Steve Tignor for Tennis.com. Meanwhile, Serena also knows that Simona Halep will not beat herself, writes Martina Navratilova for wtatennis.com.