The @Wimbledon final is set - it's @Simona_Halep v @serenawilliams !#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/XI0Ju4trxO
— WTA (@WTA) July 12, 2019
Top-seeded Timea Babos & Kristina Mladenovic, finalists at this year's AO and winners of RG, fell to #3-seeded veterans Hsieh Su-wei & Barbora Strycova in straight sets, 7-6/6-4. The win puts Strycova, already coming off her best-ever slam run (SF) in singles, in position to take the #1 ranking away from Mladenovic if she and Hsieh can claim the title. They'll face #4 Gaby Dabrowski & Xu Yifan, who upended #2-seeded defending champs Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova in three sets.
Omg we made it to the Wimbledon finals! ????????????#womensdoubles #womeninsport pic.twitter.com/vAbnUmxPsx
— Gaby Dabrowski (@GabyDabrowski) July 12, 2019
Three of the four women in the final will be seeking their first career slam WD win, as only Hsieh (w/ two, including the '13 Wimbledon with Peng Shuai) has been so honored of the group. Dabrowski *has* won a pair of MX titles in 2017-17, though.
...the path through this Wimbledon by Alona Ostapenko & Robert Lindstedt hasn't exactly been conventional -- and the back of the Swede's head has the battle scars to prove it -- but they'll both be playing for their first slam MX doubles title this weekend after advancing to the final today with a win over Yang Zhaoxuan & Mate Middelkoop. They'll face #8-seeded Latisha Chan & Ivan Dodig, who defeated #5 Kveta Peschke & Wesley Koolhof. Chan/Dodig's successful defense of their RG title last month was the first in Paris in the Open era, and a win at SW19 would make them the first to win RG & Wimbledon back-to-back since Kathy Jordan and Ken Flach in 1986.
.@JelenaOstapenk8 and @robertlindstedt move onto the @Wimbledon mixed doubles championship!
— WTA (@WTA) July 12, 2019
They will face @LatishaChanYJ and @DodigTennis for the ??--> https://t.co/z68RWHhYaN pic.twitter.com/DHbvzavPcR
...in the juniors, unseeded Roehampton champion Daria Snigur has kept up the (usual) tradition of success in the tune-up event carrying over to SW19, as the 17-year old handled #1-seeded Emma Navarro 3 & love today to become the fifth Ukrainian to reach the Wimbledon girls singles final. With her win in the other semi, #10 Alexa Noel will try to become the second Bannerette to go home with the Wimbledon girls crown in the last three years, as she defeated #4-seeded Pastry Diane Parry today. Snigur defeated Noel in the Roehampton final last week.
Thirteen different U.S. girls have won the title over the years, while only Kateryna Bondarenko (2004) has won while representing Ukraine.
The #Wimbledon juniors finals are set ?
— ITF (@ITF_Tennis) July 12, 2019
Alexa Noel ???? will face Daria Snigur ???? in the girls' competition on Saturday, while Shintaro Mochizuki ???? takes on Carlos Gimeno Valero ???? on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/jvP2YTfOOr
...in the wheelchair competition, #1 Diede de Groot advance to her ninth straight slam singles final with a straight sets win over KG Montjane, and will now seek her third straight SW19 crown against countrywoman Aniek Van Koot, assuring a Dutch champion in all four years in which the singles have been played at SW19.
Van Koot defeated #2 Yui Kamiji 6-3/6-3. Kamiji, who was looking to become the second (after de Groot) player to win all eight slam titles in a career, has still not reached a singles final at Wimbledon. A season or two ago, I watched the entire QF round of WC play at Wimbledon in order to compare all their games, and determined that Kamiji, being the smallest of all the WC athletes, although she was ranked #1 at the time, seemed to have more difficulty moving around the rougher grass courts (as opposed to hard courts or clay) than the other players, perhaps because of her shorter arms, or maybe lack of comparative arm strength. Whatever it is, it seems to still make singles success at Wimbledon a difficult "get" for her.
Van Koot is 2-4 in slam finals, including a RU in the first SW19 singles championship in 2016 (a loss to Jiske Griffioen). If she can pull the upset of de Groot, she'd pick up her third different slam singles crown, and would have the opportunity in 2020 to surpass Kamiji to become the second with all eight titles. She only needs singles titles at Wimbledon and Roland Garros (where she's a three-time finalist).
De Groot & Van Koot returned later in the day to defeat Kamiji & Jordanne Whiley in that duo's first event together in two years, winning a close one by a 4-6/7-6(1)/6-1 score. The #1 seeds will get the #2 duo in the final, as Marjolein Buis & Giulia Capocci (into her first slam final) defeated Sabine Ellerbrock & Montjane.
De Groot has now reached the s/d finals of the last nine slams (18 total finals), and will look to sweep both competitions for the fifth straight major. In her 22 career slam s/d draws, she's reached 19 finals (so far winning 12 titles, six in each discipline)
...Cara Black & Martina Navratilova secured a spot in the Invitation Doubles final. The 2017 champions, they'll meet the '18 winners, Kim Clijsters & Rennae Stubbs, for the title in a rematch of last year's final match.
...in the WTA 125 event in Bastad, Misaki Doi and Danka Kovinic will be sick of each other by the end of the weekend. Both advanced to the singles final today, as well as the doubles final, Doi with Natalia Vikhlyantseva and Kovinic with Alexa Guarachi.
Doi will be looking to win her second WTA 125 title ('16 San Antonio), while Kovinic will be playing for her biggest career singles title.
We are getting ready for Sunday's final at the #swedishopen #wta
— Swedish Open Tennis (@swedish_open) July 12, 2019
Who is your pick to lift the ???@KovinicDanka118 or @MisakiDoiTennis
Photo: @ImaginestudioAB pic.twitter.com/TZMRsC3PxA
#11 Serena Williams/USA vs. #7 Simona Halep/ROU
=WOMEN'S DOUBLES FINAL=
#3 Hsieh/Strycova (TPE/CZE) vs. #4 Dabrowski/Xu (CAN/CHN)
=MIXED DOUBLES FINAL=
Ostapenko/Lindstedt (LAT/SWE) vs. #9 L.Chan/Dodig (TPE/CRO)
=GIRLS SINGLES FINAL=
Daria Snigur/UKR vs. #10 Alexa Noel/USA
=GIRLS DOUBLES SF=
Bartone/Selekhmeteva (LAT/RUS) vs. P.Kudermetova/Morlet (RUS/FRA)
Droguet/Janicijevic (FRA/FRA) vs. Broadus/Forbes (USA/USA)
=WHEELCHAIR SINGLES FINAL=
#1 Diede de Groot/NED vs. Aniek Van Koot/NED
=WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES FINAL=
#1 de Groot/Van Koot (NED/NED) vs. #2 Buis/Capocci (NED/ITA)
=WOMEN'S INVITATION DOUBLES FINAL=
Kim Clijsters/Rennae Stubbs vs. C.Black/Navratilova
me arguing with the guards of area 51 when I break in pic.twitter.com/jEHSW6pOWp
— vin¢ (@vinjendie) July 12, 2019
4...HSIEH/STRYCOVA (3-0)
4...Chan/Chan (3-1)
3...Babos/Mladenovic (2-1)
3...DABROWSKI/XU (1-1)
3...Groenefeld/Schuurs (0-3)
2...Mertens/Sabalenka (2-0)
2...Flipkens/Larsson (1-1)
2...Kalinskaya/Kuzmova (1-1)
2...Krawczyk/Olmos (1-1)
2...Martinez Sanchez/Sorribes Tormo (1-1)
2...Melichar/Peschke (1-1)
2...Stosur/Sh.Zhang (1-1)
**SLAM MX TITLES - active*
5...Katarina Srebotnik, SLO
3...Bethanie Mattek-Sands, USA
3...Sania Mirza, IND
3...Samantha Stosur, AUS
2...Victoria Azarenka, BLR
2...LATISHA CHAN, TPE
2...Gaby Dabrowski, CAN
2...Anna-Lena Groenefeld, GER
2...Kristina Mladenovic, FRA
2...Serena Williams, USA
2...Venus Williams, USA
2...Vera Zvonareva, RUS
*RECENT WIMBLEDON GIRLS FINALS*
2010 Kristyna Pliskova/CZE def. Sachie Ishizu/JPN
2011 Ash Barty/AUS def. Irina Khromacheva/RUS
2012 Genie Bouchard/CAN def. Elina Svitolina/UKR
2013 Belinda Bencic/SUI def. Taylor Townsend/USA
2014 Alona Ostapenko/LAT def. Kristina Schmiedlova/SVK
2015 Sofya Zhuk/RUS def. Anna Blinkova/RUS
2016 Anastasia Potapova/RUS def. Dayana Yastremska/UKR
2017 Claire Liu/USA def. Ann Li/USA
2018 Iga Swiatek/POL def. Leonie Kung/SUI
2019 Daria Snigur/UKR vs. Alexa Noel/USA
*RECENT WIMBLEDON GIRLS DOUBLES CHAMPS*
2010 Timea Babos & Sloane Stephens, HUN/USA
2011 Genie Bouchard & Grace Min, CAN/USA
2012 Genie Bouchard & Taylor Townsend, CAN/USA
2013 Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova, CZE/CZE
2014 Tami Grende & Ye Quiyu, INA/CHN
2015 Dalma Galfi & Fanni Stollar, HUN/HUN
2016 Usue Arconada & Claire Liu, USA/USA
2017 Olga Danilovic & Kaja Juvan, SRB/SLO
2018 Wang Xinyu & Wang Xiyu, CHN/CHN
2019 ?
*RECENT WIMBLEDON DOUBLES CHAMPIONS*
2010 Vania King & Yaroslava Shvedova, USA/KAZ
2011 Kveta Peschke & Katarina Srebotnik, CZE/SLO
2012 Serena Williams & Venus Williams, USA/USA
2013 Hsieh Su-Wei & Peng Shuai, TPE/CHN
2014 Sara Errani & Roberta Vinci, ITA/ITA
2015 Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza, SUI/IND
2016 Serena Williams & Venus Williams, USA/USA
2017 Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina, RUS/RUS
2018 Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova, CZE/CZE
2019 ?
*RECENT WIMBLEDON MIXED DOUBLES CHAMPS*
2010 Cark Black & Leander Paes, ZIM/IND
2011 Iveta Benesova & Jurgen Melzer, CZE/AUT
2012 Lisa Raymond & Mike Bryan, USA/USA
2013 Kristina Mladenovic & Daniel Nestor, FRA/CAN
2014 Samantha Stosur & Nenad Zimonjic, AUS/SRB
2015 Martina Hingis & Leander Paes, SUI/IND
2016 Heather Watson & Henri Kontinen, GBR/FIN
2017 Martina Hingis & Jamie Murray, SUI/GBR
2018 Nicole Melichar & Alexander Peya, USA/AUT
2019 ?
*WIMBLEDON WHEELCHAIR WINNERS*
[singles]
2016 Jiske Griffioen, NED
2017 Diede de Groot, NED
2018 Diede de Groot, NED
2019 ?
[doubles]
2009 Korie Homan/Esther Vergeer, NED/NED
2010 Esther Vergeer/Sharon Walraven, NED/NED
2011 Esther Vergeer/Sharon Walraven, NED/NED
2012 Jiske Griffioen/Aniek van Koot, NED/NED
2013 Jiske Griffioen/Aniek van Koot, NED/NED
2014 Yui Kamiji/Jordanne Whiley, JPN/GBR
2015 Yui Kamiji/Jordanne Whiley, JPN/GBR
2016 Yui Kamiji/Jordanne Whiley, JPN/GBR
2017 Yui Kamiji/Jordanne Whiley, JPN/GBR
2018 Diede de Groot/Yui Kamiji, NED/JPN
2019 ?
*WIMBLEDON "Ms. OPPORTUNITY" WINNERS*
2004 Maria Sharapova, RUS
2005 Venus Williams, USA
2006 Severine Bremond, FRA
2007 Marion Bartoli, FRA
2008 Zheng Jie, CHN
2009 Elena Dementieva, RUS
2010 Tsvetana Pironkova, BUL
2011 Petra Kvitova, CZE
2012 Aga Radwanska, POL
2013 Kirsten Flipkens, BEL
2014 Lucie Safarova, CZE
2015 Garbine Muguruza, ESP
2016 Elena Vesnina, RUS
2017 Magdalena Rybarikova, SVK
2018 Julia Goerges, GER
2019 Simona Halep, ROU and Alison Riske, USA
*WIMBLEDON "COMEBACK" WINNERS*
2007 Venus Williams, USA
2008 Tamarine Tanasugarn, THA
2009 Ana Ivanovic, SRB
2010 Vera Zvonareva, RUS
2011 Maria Sharapova, RUS
2012 Mirjana Lucic, CRO
2013 Marion Bartoli, FRA
2014 The White Shorts (of Victoria Azarenka)
2015 Aga Radwanska, POL
2016 Serena Williams/Venus Williams, USA/USA
2017 Victoria Azarenka, BLR
2018 Serena Williams, USA
2019 Alona Ostapenko, LAT (MX)
*WIMBLEDON "JUNIOR BREAKOUT" WINNERS*
2007 Ula Radwanska, POL
2008 Laura Robson, GBR
2009 Timea Babos, HUN & Miyabi Inoue, JPN
2010 Kristyna Pliskova, CZE
2011 Ash Barty, AUS
2012 Genie Bouchard, CAN
2013 Louisa Chirico, USA
2014 Alona Ostapenko, LAT
2015 Sofya Zhuk, RUS
2016 Dayana Yastremska, UKR
2017 Ann Li, USA
2018 Wang Xinyu/CHN & Wang Xiyu/CHN
2019 Daria Snigur, UKR
*JUNIOR SLAM FINALISTS - UKRAINE*
2000 Wimbledon - Tatiana Perebiynis
2000 U.S. Open - Tatiana Perebiynis
2003 Australian Open - Viktoriya Kutuzova
2004 Wimbledon - Kateryna Bondarenko (W)
2010 Roland Garrros - Elina Svitolina (W)
2012 Wimbledon - Elina Svitolina
2014 U.S. Open - Anhelina Kalinina
2016 Wimbledon - Marta Kostyuk
2017 Australian Open - Marta Kostyuk (W)
2019 Wimbledon - Daria Snigur
*WIMBLEDON GIRLS CHAMPIONS - USA*
1957 Miriam Arnold
1958 Sally Moore
1960 Karen Hantze
1964 Peaches Bartkowicz
1968 Kristy Pigeon
1970 Sharon Walsh
1973 Ann Kiyomura
1977 Lea Antonopolis
1978 Tracy Austin
1979 Mary-Lou Piatek
1981 Zina Garrison
1992 Chanda Rubin
2017 Claire Liu
-
NOTE: Alexa Noel in final
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): #1 Ash Barty/AUS
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): #11 Serena Williams/USA
TOP LATE-ROUND (SF-F): xx
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q2: #20 Kaja Juvan/SLO def. Basak Eraydin/TUR 4-6/7-6(3)/6-3 (trailed 6-4/4-1 40/15)
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): 1st Rd. - Alison Riske/USA def. #22 Donna Vekic/CRO 3-6/6-3/7-5 (Vekic led 4-1 in 3rd; first Ct.1 roof closure)
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): 3rd Rd. - (WC) Coco Gauff/USA def. Polona Hercog/SLO 3-6/7-6(7)/7-5 (down 6-3/5-2; Hercog 3 MP in 2nd)
TOP LATE-RD. MATCH (SF-F/Jr.): xx
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: Madison Keys/USA (1st Rd. def. Luksika Kumkhum/THA)
FIRST SEED OUT: #10 Aryna Sabalenka/BLR (lost 1st Rd. to Rybarikova/SVK)
UPSET QUEENS: Slovenia
REVELATION LADIES: Russia
NATION OF POOR SOULS: BLR (1-3 1st; 3/4 of "Dream Team" lose, including #10 Sabalenka)
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Coco Gauff/USA (4th Rd.) (LL: L.Davis/USA - 3rd Rd.)
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: Harriet Dart/GBR (3rd Rd.)
LAST BRIT STANDING: Johanna Konta (QF)
IT ("Kid"): Coco Gauff, USA
Ms.OPPORTUNITY: Simona Halep, ROU (first Wimbledon final) and Alison Riske, USA (into "Last 8 Club")
COMEBACK PLAYER: Alona Ostapenko/LAT (MX)
CRASH & BURN: #2 Naomi Osaka/JPN (1st Rd. - lost to Putintseva/KAZ)
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF LONDON: Elina Svitolina/UKR (2nd Rd.: Gasparyan two points from win at 7-5/5-4, cramps, retires when leading match)
DOUBLES STAR: Nominees: Strycova, L.Chan, Capocci (WC)
VETERAN PLAYER (KIMIKO CUP): Barbora Strycova/CZE
SPIRIT OF JANA (NOVOTNA) HONOREE: (Bad Donna) Vekic/CRO
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: Daria Snigur/UKR (Roehampton winner/in Wimbledon girls final)
RAD REMEMBRANCE DAY malevolent activity notes...
June 26 official: In Eastbourne, a day after her first Top 10 victory in over a year (and first consecutive wins in back-to-back events since last grass season), '18 Wimbledon semifinalist (and former SW19 girls champ) Alona Ostapenko is forced to retire from her 3rd Round match with a hip injury.
Day 3 observed: Margarita Gasparyan, having overcome three knee surgeries and missing most of two years between 2016-18, comes within two points of defeating #8-seeded Elina Svitolina at 7-5/5-4. Five minutes later, she serves and lands awkwardly on her "bad" leg and immediately doubles over in pain. She is treated for cramping, and ultimately, in tears, retires while still leading 7-5/5-6, with an 82-81 points edge and 42-15 lead in winners.
