Mary Joe On Serena: “I Am In Awe.”

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Mary Joe On Serena: “I Am In Awe.”

By Chris Oddo

Photo Credit: Clive Rose/ Getty

(July 5, 2012)--After Serena Williams broke the Wimbledon record for aces in a single match today—for the second time in less than a week—ESPN commentator and former world No. 4 Mary Joe Fernandez was gushing about what she had just witnessed. Here’s what she had to say in the booth as she went over the match with her partner Mike Tirico.

“I am in awe of the serve that Serena possesses. It’s breathtaking. She can just toss it up and hit all the corners—especially when it matters the most.”

“It’s remarkable,” said Fernandez. “We can’t say enough about both Venus and Serena, and for me to see Serena lose early at the French for the first time, and rebound the way that she has, fight her way through the tough matches she had early in this tournament, through health issues, injuries, not playing her best, she finds a way. She digs deep. She wants it. She wants it so badly. As long as she doesn’t get ahead of herself, she’s going to have another title.”

Pam Shriver, a five-time Wimbledon doubles champion, was gushing too on the ESPN set.

“What I love about what Serena has done--She’s sort of put the French Open nightmare to rest in the middle of this tournament when she played Zheng Jie in the third round and won 9-7 in the third," said Shriver. "Next match up, she played Shvedova, 7-5 in the third.

“I talked to Serena after that match and she was still full of some negative thoughts. But I felt like she has just raised her level in the last two matches,” Shriver said. “She’s had a tough draw, to get through to the finals. She’s shown us the champion’s heart and in an era of wonderful comebacks in tennis, with Brian Baker and Mardy Fish, Serena Williams is poised and ready to finish her comeback.”

It’s hard not to be blown away by Serena’s achievements at Wimbledon this year. She’s bounced back from an incredibly disappointing French Open to stand on the cusp of a fourteenth Grand Slam title and a fifth Wimbledon title, and she's done it all just a little over a year after many thought her career might be over due to the pulmonary embolism and hematoma she suffered last spring.

She’s also two matches away from winning her fifth Wimbledon ladies' doubles title with her sister Venus, after breezing past Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals today.

And, in a story that isn’t getting a lot of press at the moment (because of all the well deserved gushing about her ace records and dominance), Serena will become the first 30-plus-aged woman to win a Grand Slam in 22 years if she can defeat Agnieszka Radwanska for the title on Saturday.

Talk about coming back with a vengeance. Serena has done that and more at Wimbledon.