The benefits of being a winner

Shortly after beating Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final, Garbine Muguruza was given a purple-and-gold circular badge signifying that she is a member of the All England Club, an honorary status accorded to tournament champions.

“I’m like, ‘I’m going to wear it right now,’” Muguruza said.

So she attached that hard-to-earn pin to her white zippered jacket, just over her heart, and fiddled with the thing while speaking to a small group of reporters Saturday evening.

Muguruza noted that after losing in the 2015 Wimbledon final to Williams’ sister, Serena, she didn’t get the same treatment, of course: Runners-up don’t get the membership or its privileges. “It’s all or nothing,” Muguruza said. “So I’m like, ‘Whew, this year, I finally did it.’”

This 7-5, 6-0 victory over Venus, combined with Muguruza’s win against Serena in last year’s French Open final, made the 23-year-old Spaniard the only woman to defeat each Williams sister in a Grand Slam title match. That alone marks her as a likely, and worthy, heir to the two women who changed their sport. Add in Muguruza’s bold, aggressive playing style and affinity for the big stage, and she certainly looks like someone who could keep doing what she wants to do more than anything: win major championships.

That matters more to her than where she is in the rankings, for example. She entered Wimbledon at No. 15, and will rise to No. 5 on Monday.

Her career-best is No. 2, but that doesn’t seem to concern Muguruza all that much.

The challenge is to remember how to play more frequently the way she did for those two special weeks in Paris two years ago, and these two special weeks in London this year.

If she can do that, there’s no telling how many of these things she can win.