Tennis News: The first champion at Wimbledon for the 2023 season was decided when seventh-seeded pair Lyudmyla Kichenok and Mate Pavic won the mixed doubles final.
The seventh seed beat Chinese-Belgian duo Xu Yifan and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 in the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon.
The Ukraine-Croatia team needed 2 hours and 7 minutes to beat Xu and Vliegen after the unseeded pair saved two match point chances in the second set tiebreaker and forced the third set. The seventh-seeded pair also regrouped in the third set to claim the winning trophy.
The title is the first Grand Slam title at any level for the 30-year-old, a former top-10 doubles player currently ranked 15th in the world. The 2023 Wimbledon final will also be the first Grand Slam final of his career.
Meanwhile, former world number 1 in doubles Pavic, who is also 30, now has three Grand Slam titles in mixed doubles, having won the 2016 US Open title with German national Laura Siegemund and the 2018 Australian Open title with Australian tennis. Canadian player, Gabriela Dabrowski.
“It’s really amazing to be the Wimbledon mixed doubles champion,” said Kichenok. “I really enjoyed competing with Mate. He’s a great tennis player. It’s been a really good time for me in the last ten days.”
“We both train very hard with our game every day. We both try to play aggressively. Especially on the grass courts, our game works very well. This is the key. It worked well for us in this tournament.
Both teams had match point chances en route to the final. Xu and Vliegen saved three match points in the first round against defending champions Desirae Krawczyk and Neal Skupski. Meanwhile, Kichenok and Pavic saved match point chances in the second-round tie-break against Bernarda Pera and Nikola Mektic.
After each team won the first two sets, Ukrainian Kichenok and Croatian Pavic took control of the third set and took a 5-3 lead. In the next match, the volley winner created by the Ukrainian tennis player gave his team a match point opportunity and he converted that opportunity with the ultimate overhead shot.
Article tags: Tennis, Wimbledon, Lyudmyla Kichenok, Mate Pavic
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