On July 13, at the Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament, 30-year-old Ukrainian tennis player Lyudmyla Kichenok teamed up with six-time Grand Slam champion Mate Pavic of Croatia to win the mixed doubles.
The unseeded pair saved a championship point in a second set tiebreaker, and after forcing a third set, Kichenok and Pavić needed 2 hours and 7 minutes to get past Xu and Vliegen. They came together in the final set to lift the Champions Trophy under the closed roof of Center Court.
What did Kichenok say?
However, Kichenok and Pavic came close to a straight-set win but failed to win the tiebreaker: 9-11. The final result of the match was 6-4, 6-7 (9-11), 6-3. This is the first Grand Slam final for the Ukrainian player, but the 12th final for his partner.
“I try to encourage the people in Ukraine, and I hope it helps a little bit because they are fighting for their freedom,” Kichenok said to loud applause from the Center Court crowd.
“It feels amazing; I want to thank my partner for playing amazing these two weeks,” Kitchenok said.
“We are both working hard on our game every day. We’re both trying to play aggressive. It works well on grass. That is the key that worked for us in this tournament,” the Ukrainian tennis star said at the post-match press conference.
The Last Word!
Kichenok achieved the first victory of a Ukrainian tennis player in a WTA tournament in mixed doubles. Prior to this, she had won eight titles in doubles alone. This is the first time a Ukrainian player has won Wimbledon and the first victory for a Ukrainian player in a Grand Slam mixed doubles tournament in history.
Therefore, Ukrainian tennis players won the second Grand Slam title. In 2008, Olena and Katerina Bondarenko became doubles champions at the Australian Open. Since then, there has not been a final involving Ukrainian players.