Sania and Mattek-Sands too had two opportunities to break their rivals but the American fluffed a volley from the net before left-handed Desirae served extremely well to eventually hold.
If Serena Williams wanted to sound like someone who did not really care whether she won another Wimbledon or not, telling the world she just wanted to have fun, nobody was fooled on Thursday.
In a professional career lasting more than two decades, Venus Williams is closing in on a 50th WTA title and credits her longevity to a love of the game and a desire to constantly improve.
The Olympic tennis event, which was held at the All England Club's previous site in 1908, will begin on July 28 and last nine days. There will be medals in men's and women's singles and doubles and, for the first time since Paris 1924, mixed doubles.
Here are some of the reactions to the Grand Slam - originally scheduled for June 29-July 12 - being cancelled for the first time in 75 years.
In the first women's final played under the Centre Court roof, a high-quality first set gradually built towards a captivating conclusion after both players began with two comfortable service holds.
A subdued Serena Williams recovered from a sluggish start to beat China's Zheng Jie 6-7, 6-2, 9-7 in a marathon Wimbledon third-round match on Saturday.
Federer received a standing ovation from the 15,000 capacity crowd that lasted several minutes.
Two-time winner Petra Kvitova and world number three Karolina Pliskova will be tough to beat at Wimbledon because the tournament's grass courts suit their games down to the ground, Serena Williams' coach Patrick Mouratoglou has said.
Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli just wants to enjoy herself and play big matches when she returns to competitive tennis in March after more than four years in retirement.
The tennis star reveals her deepest secrets in her latest interview with Harper's Bazaar UK.
No current athlete in the world of sport can match the 31-year-old for reliability at present and the American, despite a brief blip, eased past Luxembourg's Mandy Minella 6-1, 6-3.
Serena and Venus Williams, three-time women's doubles Olympic champions, crashed out in the first round at the Rio Games on Sunday in one of the biggest upsets so far in women's tennis. The Williams sisters were beaten by the Czech Republic pair of Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova 3-6, 4-6.
Serena Williams is now one match away from reinforcing her stranglehold on the women's game by holding all four grand slam titles at the same time, a feat she will achieve for the second occasion if she beats 20th-seeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza in Saturday's final.
Serena Williams beat Germany's Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 to claim a seventh Wimbledon singles title and equal Steffi Graf's professional era record of 22 grand slam singles crowns on Saturday.
The showdown will see world number one Serena Williams try to equal Steffi Graf's professional era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, while Angelique Kerber will seek to become the first German woman to lift the Wimbledon singles crown since her idol Graf 20 years ago.
Seven-times champion Serena Williams and Germany's Angelique Kerber will clash in the Ladies singles final at Wimbledon after registering easy victories in the semi-finals on Thursday. While Serena had things her way in a 6-2, 6-4 demolition of Germany's Julia Georges, Kerber beat Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-3.
Wimbledon champion Venus Williams beat Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 0-6 6-4 in the second singles on Saturday to level the Fed Cup semi-final between the United States and Russia at 1-1.
Facts and figures about the Wimbledon men's tournament which starts on June 23 in London.
A brief look at the strengths and weaknesses of the leading contenders for the women's title at Wimbledon which begins on Monday.
Serena Williams made the most of a break in her match against 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova on Monday, when the Centre Court roof was closed after she threatened to sue organisers if she fell and injured herself on the slippery turf.
Facts and figures about the Wimbledon women's tournament which starts on June 23 in London.
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are top seeds at the major starting Monday
Be it cheering for Roger Federer or Garbine Muguruza at the Wimbledon final, the Hollywood brigade made their presence felt at both, the women's and men's final at Wimbledon over the weekend. We caught a few cine stars watching their tennis heroes in action at the All England Club...
Factbox on American Serena Williams, who won her 15th Grand Slam singles title at the US Open on Sunday with a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Wimbledon's prize money has trebled in the last decade.
Former Wimbledon champion Rafa Nadal could be heading for a clash with one of his Big Four rivals as early as the fourth round after the Spaniard was seeded 10th for the grasscourt championships.
Serena and Venus Williams' stranglehold of women's doubles was ended at Wimbledon on Wednesday when the American sisters were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Vera Zvonareva and Elena Vesnina.
Mandy Minella of Luxembourg played at Wimbledon while four and a half months pregnant.
Venus Williams captured her 47th WTA career title on Saturday, and her biggest in five years, when she won the Wuhan Open in China, beating Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza.
Marion Bartoli had barely registered on the tennis scale before but that did not stop her from destroying Justine Henin's Wimbledon dream.
As Russian Maria Sharapova and American Serena Williams get ready to slug it out in their big-ticket semi-final, records and history tells us who has had the upper hand.
China's Zheng Qinwen is bidding to become the fourth woman to win Olympic gold and the US Open title in the same year
Former world number two Agnieszka Radwanska is considering a new career as a padel professional after recently making her debut on the CUPRA FIP Tour in Spain.
It will be 'Mother's Day' on Wimbledon's Centre Court on Monday when Serena Williams takes on fellow mum Evgeniya Rodina for a place in the quarter-finals of the grasscourt major.
List of Wimbledon women's singles champions:
Five-times champion and second seed Venus Williams was stunned 6-2, 6-3 by Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon on Tuesday.
IMAGES from the matches played during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, at Wimbledon in London on Thursday
It was job well done for Novak Djokovic as he silenced Bernard Tomic and his Australian Fanatics with an emphatic 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory in the Wimbledon third round on Friday.
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