PARIS -- No. 22 will have to wait. Again.
For the third consecutive Grand Slam event, Serena Williams failed to tie Steffi Graf's Open-era record as she lost 7-5, 6-4 to fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza at the French Open on Saturday.
In winning her first major, Muguruza traded powerful groundstrokes with Williams en route to beating Williams for the second time in three years at Roland Garros. In 2014, she handed Williams the worst loss of her Grand Slam career with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the second round.
After letting four match points slip away in the penultimate game, Muguruza served out the match at love, punctuated by a high lob that caught the baseline as Williams watched.
The winning shot drew a smile from Serena's face as she then applauded Muguruza, who put her face in her hands and fell on her back in the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier as her coach Sam Sumyk jumped from his chair and raised both arms in the air.
The 22-year-old Muguruza, who lost to Williams in last year's final at Wimbledon, became the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won the last of her three French Open crowns in 1998.
"I can't explain with words how this day means to me," Muguruza said after the match. "You work all your life to get here."
Since pulling within one win of tying Graf, the 34-year-old Williams has now lost in the semifinals of the 2015 US Open (to Roberta Vinci) and the finals of this year's Australian Open (to Angelique Kerber) and French.
The loss, which came in her fourth match in four days after rain played havoc with the schedule this week, ended her 14-match winning streak at Roland Garros.
Muguruza became just the fifth different woman to defeat Williams in a Grand Slam final, joining Kerber, Samantha Stosur, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams -- who beat her sister twice.
Information from ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press were used in this report.
For the third consecutive Grand Slam event, Serena Williams failed to tie Steffi Graf's Open-era record as she lost 7-5, 6-4 to fourth-seeded Garbine Muguruza at the French Open on Saturday.
In winning her first major, Muguruza traded powerful groundstrokes with Williams en route to beating Williams for the second time in three years at Roland Garros. In 2014, she handed Williams the worst loss of her Grand Slam career with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the second round.
After letting four match points slip away in the penultimate game, Muguruza served out the match at love, punctuated by a high lob that caught the baseline as Williams watched.
The winning shot drew a smile from Serena's face as she then applauded Muguruza, who put her face in her hands and fell on her back in the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier as her coach Sam Sumyk jumped from his chair and raised both arms in the air.
The 22-year-old Muguruza, who lost to Williams in last year's final at Wimbledon, became the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won the last of her three French Open crowns in 1998.
"I can't explain with words how this day means to me," Muguruza said after the match. "You work all your life to get here."
Since pulling within one win of tying Graf, the 34-year-old Williams has now lost in the semifinals of the 2015 US Open (to Roberta Vinci) and the finals of this year's Australian Open (to Angelique Kerber) and French.
The loss, which came in her fourth match in four days after rain played havoc with the schedule this week, ended her 14-match winning streak at Roland Garros.
Muguruza became just the fifth different woman to defeat Williams in a Grand Slam final, joining Kerber, Samantha Stosur, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams -- who beat her sister twice.
Information from ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press were used in this report.
