“It’s amazing”: Krejčíková and Siniaková take second Wimbledon doubles title
Czech tennis duo Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková won their second Wimbledon doubles title on Sunday, after beating Zhang Shuai and Elise Mertens in the final. It is the fourth out of the recent six major doubles tournaments that the pair has won and is all the sweeter given that they were prevented from taking part in the French Open.
Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková broke their opponents serve without allowing them a single point in the last game of their 6:2 6:4 victory over China’s Zhang Shuai and Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
After the game Krejčíková told Czech Radio what it was like to take the title on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
“It’s amazing. I think that it was clear from the moment we went on to the court that we weren’t ready to lose. We encouraged each other and went into the game with an active aggressive mentality. We wanted to show our opponents that the title is ours and that we won’t let it slip through our fingers.”
The Czech duo has been dominating the women’s doubles discipline since they won the French Open last year, adding titles from the Olympics, WTA Finals, Australian Open and now the Wimbledon over the subsequent 13 months.
The victory is all the sweeter given the circumstances. Krejčíková, who had an elbow injury this year, tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the first round of the French Open, preventing the two Czechs from defending their title.
It wasn’t clear how the two would fare at Wimbledon, as they had not had the opportunity to play much together in recent months, but Siniaková said that was not a big issue.
“We know each other and know what to expect from ourselves on the court. What’s more, we try to train and improve every day. I think that this showed itself on the court, because our game is more stable. But other than that, I don’t think that we really need to play games to work well together.”
The pair has been playing together for many years and this was their second Wimbledon victory. The first came in 2018, the year when the duo also took first spot in the WTA doubles rankings.
This year, the victory comes with a catch. Due to the ban on Russian and Belarusian players in response to the invasion of Ukraine, players at Wimbledon did not receive ranking points, meaning that neither Czech will see their rankings improved. Both Siniaková and Krejčíková therefore remain outside of the top two doubles ranking spots, despite not losing a match so far at any of the Grand Slams that they have taken part in this year. But the latter says that this is not an issue.
“The main thing is that we have the title. We are taking the cups home and our names will be written on the board here for a second time. We have been walking by that board for the past two weeks and I was hoping that our names would appear there again.”
Both players are in their mid-20s, still a young age for doubles players, leaving much opportunity for further entries into the All England Club’s list of victors.
