LONDON: The British-American team of Neal Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk claimed the mixed doubles title by fighting off the challenge of Londoners Joe Salisbury and Harriet Dart 6-2, 7-6(1) at Center Court as the Wimbledon Championship concluded on Sunday.
The No.7 seeds dominated the opening set before playing an almost perfect second set tie-break, the final blow coming from Skupski when he connected with a winning backhand return on match point. During the match, Krawczyk and Skupski did not face a breakpoint. They won more than 81 per cent of their service points against the all-British team to emerge victorious after one hour and 21 minutes.
This victory wrapped up an incredible few weeks for the Californian 27-year-old Krawczyk, who won the Roland-Garros mixed title with Salisbury and is now a Wimbledon champion alongside Skupski.
"I just can't believe it, I'm just shocked," was Krawczyk's assessment as she held back the tears, as per Wimbledon.com. "I never imagined I would win back-to-back Grand Slam mixed titles. It's just incredible."
For Neal Skupski, it was the day of redemption as he and his older brother Ken Skupski lost a heartbreaker in the second round at Wimbledon against eventual finalists Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos.
"I still can't really believe we won Wimbledon. It's crazy," ATP Tour quoted Skupski. "Once we finished we did the trophy ceremony and walked in the back and our names were already on the honours board, which I couldn't quite believe. It's surreal. But I think we deserved it. It's never easy playing finals, especially against two Brits, but it makes it extra special."
Skupski has already reached two ATP Masters 1000 doubles finals this season alongside Dan Evans.