Wow, the tiebreakers are over again and the Wimbledon final awaits on Saturday! On the other hand, they made every effort and kept us under control for a long time at a particularly tough level of passing, but even this was not enough. We achieved a victory at home and can take revenge a couple of weeks ago against Arevalo/Pavic.
The men were so tired in the quarterfinals on Tuesday that Henry and I had a full day off on Wednesday. In the hot London weather I went to a hotel for the night in a room with proper air conditioning, but on Thursday we returned to the competition site and on the hottest day of the week the temperature on the meter reached 35 degrees. In the afternoon we played our shots carefully and were ready to take first place on a wonderful course. There was a big crowd there and the atmosphere was just right.
At the beginning of the first set we finally had the only break point of the match, but Kokkinakis still fought it back with an ace. The game turned out to be a rather difficult game for the pitchers, so the outcome of the first set was decided only in a tiebreaker. Kovacevic fell to a double early in the match, and when I played out one superb point from goal and made another strong comeback at 4-1, the set started to go well. Henry finished the tiebreaker in style with two aces.
In the second set, the momentum was initially on our side, but the opponents, who passed heavily, were soon able to better catch up with our passes. I had to save one break point in a 1-2 situation and Henri two set points in a 4-5 situation, but we went to a tiebreak again. In the middle of the second set, aces rained into my box at a frantic pace, but in the tiebreaker I managed to get hold of a couple of balls. However, this time the solution came thanks to Henry’s returns. Kovacevic saved our first match point in the tiebreak at 6-5 with an ace, but a great return from Henry at 6-6 gave us our second match point. This time I managed to pass the ball, but Kokkinakis made a strong play and equalized the score. My ace brought us the third match point, but it didn’t work either when Kokkinakis’ second serve fell onto the service line and received an unfortunate bounce from it. But Henry struck at 8-8 with another superb return punch and finally the fourth match point opened the door when Kokkinakis’ return was long.
📸: Kieran Cleeves and Florian Heysel
Yes, this match was completely different from some of our previous matches, but what remains constant is that when the going gets tough, these matches are always decided in the end. In the tiebreaks we had to push ourselves as hard as we could and really deserve the win again. We weren’t given any bad passes on the other side, but luckily we have enough experience with these bumps that the lack of breaks didn’t cause any unnecessary stress. It is usually even easier to win one or two return points in a tiebreaker than it is to win an entire break at the beginning of a set.
I was pleased with my passing game because there were no breakthroughs towards the opponent either. Of course, we could have left a couple of unnecessary doubles unscored, and we could have found a little more precision somewhere, but yes, we played our serves very well today. The work in front of goal, at least for me, was also pleasant, calm and purposeful, and the returns were also very timely, especially at the beginning of the match. Accurate enemy bombs in the corners of the box only occasionally prevented me from truly freezing. And I didn’t have even a hint that the passes were hitting almost anywhere, but almost systematically I guessed the wrong angle. But this is what is often talked about in grass tennis and especially in fours.
I have never lost a match on Court One at Wimbledon. 😎
As the two weeks in London come to an end, it’s surprising that the second Wimbledon final of my career is set for Saturday. It feels like we’ve barely recovered from Roland Garros and are back in the Grand Slam final. But that’s why we came here.
The opposition in the final will be very strong, since a couple of weeks ago Arevalo/Pavic seeded us quite poorly in the Royal Club final. They have also, especially now as the tournament progresses, played with confidence and their confidence will certainly not be diminished by Arevalo’s mixed doubles win today. Breakdowns will be difficult, but certainly not impossible. However, you must do your homework well and perform your best work in this competition during your shifts. But yes, we still have that best game in our back pocket and we’ve duly saved it for the finale.
The final will be played on the legendary Center Court on Saturday at 13:00, that is, before the women’s singles final, unlike two years ago when we only played in the evening. This Saturday it will also be hot on the field, but let’s prepare thoroughly now and charge the batteries to the fullest, and we will definitely have a hit. Let’s go!