London, July 14: The Czech-American team of Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend are Wimbledon champions after beating No.2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe in the ladies’ doubles final on Centre Court.
The No.4 seeds’ 7-6(5), 7-6(1) victory late on Saturday evening under the lights earns them their first title together as a pair in only their third tournament alongside one another.
While it is Siniakova’s third Wimbledon doubles trophy and a ninth major title overall, Townsend gets to taste Grand Slam success for the first time having finished runner-up in doubles finals at both the US Open and Roland-Garros in the past.
The result completes a remarkable couple of months for Siniakova who makes it back-to-back majors on two different surfaces – with two different partners – after landing the Roland-Garros title in June with Coco Gauff.
Siniakova and Townsend saved two set points in the opener and recovered from 0-3 in the first set tie-break before dominating the second shootout of the final to wrap up a memorable result after two hours and 4 minutes.It completed a remarkable day for Czech tennis on Centre Court after Barbora Krejcikova – Siniakova’s former doubles partner – had earlier beaten Italy’s Jasmine Paolini to claim the second Grand Slam singles title of her career.There is one consolation for Routliffe however who, despite the result, will move to No.1 in the WTA doubles rankings on Monday.
“I’m so glad Katerina slid in my DMs,” Townsend said afterwards, describing how they first discussed playing together on social media.
“It was an unconventional way that we got together but I’m so fortunate that we’re able to team up.” (AP)
