Serena Williams‘ commanding victory over Annika Beck — 6-3, 6-0 — marked her 300th victory in a major championship. Seven more and Williams will surpass Martina Navratilova for most all time. Navratilova holds the record with 306 singles victories in major championships. Williams won’t be able to set that record at Wimbledon — the third round victory pushes her through to the round 4 which means only the quarters, semis and finals remain were Williams to continue winning. So she will have to pursue the Navratilova record at the US Open — the next major championship — beginning in August.
But Williams is likely far more focused on another record — the career major mark held by Steffi Graf, winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Williams has been paused at 21 since Wimbledon a year ago. She suffered an unlikely against Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of the US Open after that Wimbledon victory. She lost to Angelique Kerber in the 2016 Australian finals and was upset by Muguruza in the 2016 French Open finals. Williams will happily take four more victories at Wimbledon to match Graf and wait till New York to surpass Navratilova. Roger Federer is the only man with 300-plus victories in majors, achieving it in Australia this year.
