Doubles Take: Matthew Ebden, Max Purcell battle; Barbora Krejcikova, Katerina Siniakova shine at Wimbledon

The third Grand Slam tournament of the season is in the books. Doubles Take looks back at the results at the All England Club.

The Warriors

With all the changes that have been made around scoring at the Grand Slams, Wimbledon remains unique in that the men’s doubles tournament is a best-of-five-sets affair from start to finish.

This year, Matt Ebden and Max Purcell needed every conceivable bit of court time to accomplish a lifelong dream for any tennis player.

The Australians, who finished as the runners-up in Melbourne at the start of the year, had to fight off three match points in the first round against Andre Goransson and Ben McLachlan, winning in a super-tiebreak in the fifth set.

And that was only the start.

They went the distance in their next two matches before posting a straight-sets win in the quarters to reach their second major semifinal of the year. In the final four, they faced Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, the top seeds who promptly took a two-sets-to-love lead. Ram and Salisbury earned multiple match points, but Ebden and Purcell fought them all off to win 6-2 in the fifth to set up a final against the hottest team on the planet, Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic, winners of four of their past five tournaments together. The defending champions split the first two sets with the Aussies, then won the third to take the lead.

Unbowed, Ebden and Purcell leveled the match with a 6-4 fourth-set win, then went toe-to-toe with the Croats in the fifth. It came down to a super tiebreak to determine the winner, and all their work over the fortnight was rewarded when Ebden served up on an ace on championship point.

It’s the first men’s major doubles title for both Ebden and Purcell, who also became the first all-Australian team to win Wimbledon since “the Woodies”—Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde—triumphed in 2000.

2 for 2022

Ever since their days in the juniors, it’s been obvious that Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova have insane chemistry when it comes to performing on the doubles court. Even as Krejcikova was shooting up the singles rankings, they’ve put up some dominant performances together, kicking off this year with their first win in Melbourne and fourth Slam triumph together overall.

A repeat performance at Roland Garros wasn’t in the cards as Krejcikova was forced out of the tournament due to COVID after struggling with injury for much of the year. Though they didn’t play together on the grass leading up to Wimbledon, the Czechs entered the tournament as one of the favorites, especially with Siniakova shining during the warm-up events.

The second seeds only dropped one set on the way to the final, a run that included a thorough thrashing of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko, the fourth seeds, in the semis. That set up a heavyweight bout against the top seeds Elise Mertens, the defending champion, and two-time major winner Zhang Shuai. From the start, Krejcikova and Siniakova erased any notion of this being a blockbuster as they raced through the opener. Confident from then on, the duo took the second 6-4 to win their second Wimbledon title since 2018 and fifth Slam together overall.

Repeat Performance

In 2021, Desirae Krawczyk was the Brady-Jordan-Serena of mixed doubles, winning three of the four Slams—two with Joe Salisbury and the other with Neal Skupski.

Her attempt to win a fourth consecutive major on the trot took a hit in Melbourne this year as she and Salisbury fell in the first round. With Salisbury deciding not to attempt another run at Roland Garros, she teamed up with Skupski, and they advanced to the quarterfinals.

Entering Wimbledon with a second title in their sights, the American-English duo was pushed to the brink in the first round, then cruised through their next two matches. In the semifinals, Krawczyk and Skupski dropped the first set against Mate Pavic and Sania Mirza before rallying for the win. On the other side of the draw, the unseeded Aussies Matt Ebden and Sam Stosur were taking a similar path to the championship match. In the final, though, it was all Krawczyk and Skupski as the second seeds won in straights to defend their title, making them the first repeat winners in mixed at the All England Club in 25 years.

This Week

Grass-court tennis isn’t done just yet. The men kick off the North American summer swing in Newport, R.I., for the year’s last event on the lawns. Former Wimbledon champ Marcelo Melo and 2018 finalist Raven Klaasen are the top seeds, followed by former NCAA All-Americans Hans Hach Verdugo and Hunter Reese. Will Blumberg, who won the 2021 title with Jack Sock, is partnering a fellow collegiate legend, Stevie Johnson, this go-around.

The other men’s event this week takes place on the clay, in Bastad, Sweden, where Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop, semifinalists at Roland Garros this year, are the top seeds. Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini are the second seeds, followed by Andrey Golubev and Maximo Gonzalez. However, the heavy favorites for the title are Rafael Matos and David Vega Hernandez, clay-court doubles standouts who are actually coming off a strong stretch on grass.

The WTA also has two tournaments on deck this week. At the tournament in Lausanne, Switzerland, home favorites and defending champions Susan Bandecchi and Simona Waltert are back this year. A repeat performance, though, might be tough in a field led by Alexa Guarachi and Asia Muhammad. Tamara Zidansek and last year’s runner-up Ulrikke Eikeri are the second seeds. In Budapest, Hungary, Fanny Stollar is looking to delight the locals once again with the title, teaming up with arguably the nation’s best-ever doubles player, Timea Babos, this time around. They take on Anna Danilina, in the midst of a breakout season, and Aleksandra Krunic—the second seeds—in their opener. Grand Slam champs Laura Siegemund and Shuai Zhang currently sit atop the draw, a precarious position given Zhang’s run to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final.