Garbiñe Muguruza won her second Grand Slam singles title, defeating Venus Williams in the final, 7–5, 6–0 to win the ladies' singles tennis title at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships.[1] Muguruza became the second Spanish woman to win Wimbledon after Conchita Martínez in 1994.[2] Muguruza also became the first and only player to defeat both Williams sisters in Grand Slam singles finals.[3] Muguruza dropped just one set the entire tournament, to Angelique Kerber in the fourth round. Serena Williams was the two-time defending champion, but did not participate this year due to pregnancy.[4]
Venus Williams was the oldest player to reach the final since Martina Navratilova, also in 1994, and played her 100th singles match at Wimbledon when she defeated reigning French Open champion Jeļena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals; it was Williams’ first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon since 2009, her first Grand Slam singles final against a player other than her sister since defeating Marion Bartoli in the 2007 Wimbledon final, and (by virtue of her run to the Australian Open final in January) marked the first time Venus reached multiple Grand Slam finals in a calendar year since 2003.[5]Johanna Konta became the first British woman to reach the semifinals since Virginia Wade in 1978,[6] and Magdaléna Rybáriková became the first Slovak woman to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon.[7]
The tournament was the 17th consecutive women's singles Grand Slam event to feature a first-time semifinalist (Rybáriková). The streak of first-time semifinalists began at 2013 Wimbledon, and it would end at the 2017 US Open.[8][9]
Despite losing in the second round, Karolína Plíšková attained the WTA No. 1 singles ranking at the end of the tournament, after Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep, the other contenders for the top ranking, lost in the fourth round and quarterfinals, respectively.[10]
This was former world No. 1 and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka's first appearance in a Grand Slam event since the 2016 French Open after giving birth to her first child in December 2016.[11] She reached the fourth round before losing to Halep.[12]
This was also the Grand Slam main draw debut of future US Open champion Bianca Andreescu. She lost in the first round to Kristína Kučová.