Serena Williams vs Agnieszka Radwanska: Who will win Wimbledon 2012

When the two Wimbledon 2012 women's singles finalists step at Centre Court on Saturday, at 2pm, it will not just be a battle for a Grand Slam title. World no. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland is going against world no. 6 Serena Williams of the United States for her first ever Grand Slam title, and a chance to be the top-ranked player for the first time in her career. Williams is gunning for her 14th major title, and first since Wimbledon 2010. The head-to-head between the two has Williams leading 2-0 but both their encounters were in 2008.

So Serena is an 8/1 on choice with the bookmakers to continue the Williams family's domination of the Ladies' event at Wimbledon in the 21st century. Her older sister Venus has captured the appropriately-named (in her case) Venus Rosewater Dish on five occasions and Serena will be confident of matching that if she can emphasise what she has been doing well in these Championships, which is serving aces, and minimise some of the extravagant errors which have crept into her game, particularly since she came back just over a year ago from a combination of serious injury and grave illness. To have got this far on Wimbledon's lawns once more is indeed a tribute to one whose career could so easily have been over.

Final Thoughts from Radwanska: "I played Serena a couple of times, but it was long time ago. I didn't play her I think in last few years. But it's always tough. She's a very tough opponent and hitting the ball very well. Of course she's playing great tennis on the grass. I think I don't really have anything to lose, so just going to try my best."

Final Thoughts from Williams: "I have to go out there and win. Agnieszka has had a better year than I have. She's been way more consistent than me. She's done really well, so she's ranked higher than me. She deserves to be. You know, I have to go out there and fight for this. This is by no means going to be easy. Never, ever do I underestimate any opponent. She's out there to try to do her best."

Interesting Facts about the Wimbledon 2012 singles final:

~ No Polish player, male or female, has ever won a Grand Slam title.

~ Radwanska is the first Polish player, male or female, to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era (she was already the first to reach a semifinal).

~ Radwanska has many other firsts for Poland: first to win a WTA title (at Stockholm in 2007), first to reach Top 10 (in July 2008), first to beat a World No.1 (beating Wozniacki at Sydney this year) and first to cross $1 million in career prize money (and she now has more than $9 million).

~ Radwanska is trying to become the fifth woman to win Wimbledon having been a junior champion, having done it in 2005 (beating Paszek in the final); the first four to achieve the feat were Jones, Susman, Hingis and Mauresmo.

~ Radwanska will break the Top 2 after this, to No.2 if she loses the final and to No.1 if she wins the final (Azarenka will be the other one in the Top 2); Williams will move from No.6 to No.4 no matter what happens in the final.

~ Williams is playing her 18th Grand Slam final (she is 13-4 in her first 17).

~ Williams is 10-0 against Top 5 players over the last year (winning them all in straight sets - and only being pushed to two tie-breaks, both by Azarenka).

~ Williams is trying to become the first 30-something to win a Grand Slam title since 1990 Wimbledon (Navratilova, who was 33 at the time).

~ With 13, Williams is in fourth place for Grand Slam titles in the Open Era (Graf leads with 22, followed by Evert and Navratilova with 18).

~ With 4, Williams is tied for fourth place for Wimbledon titles in the Open Era (Navratilova has 9, followed by Graf with 7 and Venus Williams with 5).

~ Every time the Williams sisters play doubles at Wimbledon, one of them wins the singles title (they have played doubles here eight times before and have each won the singles title four of those times - good for Serena?)

~ This will be the seventh different Grand Slam champion in a row (Clijsters, Li, Kvitova, Stosur, Azarenka, Sharapova and Radwanska or Williams); the only time there have been seven or more different Grand Slam champions in a row came between the 1977 Australian Open and 1978 Wimbledon.

Wimbledon 2012: Agnieszka Radwanska - Road to Final
First Round: d. Magdalena Rybarikova, 63 63 (1:37)
Second Round: d. Elena Vesnina, 62 61 (0:56)
Third Round: d. Heather Watson, 60 62 (0:58)
Fourth Round: d. Camila Giorgi, 62 63 (1:06)
Quarterfinals: d. Maria Kirilenko, 75 46 75 (2:50)
Semifinals: d. Angelique Kerber, 63 64 (1:10)

Wimbledon 2012: Serena Williams - Road to Final
First Round: d. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 62 64 (1:20)
Second Round: d. Melinda Czink, 61 64 (1:01)
Third Round: d. Zheng Jie, 67(5) 62 97 (2:28)
Fourth Round: d. Yaroslava Shvedova, 61 26 75 (1:54)
Quarterfinals: d. Petra Kvitova, 63 75 (1:24)
Semifinals: d. Victoria Azarenka, 63 76(6) (1:36)