Siniakova and Townsend win Wimbledon doubles titles

With her victory at Wimbledon on Saturday, Katerina Siniakova extended her impressive collection of Grand Slam women’s doubles titles, while Taylor Townsend began her own collection of Major titles.

The number 4 seeds Siniakova and Townsend fought their way through a thrilling women’s doubles final on Centre Court with a score of 7-6(5), 7-6(1) against the number 2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. For Siniakova it is the ninth Grand Slam doubles title, for Townsend the first.

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Under closed roof, Siniakova and Townsend overcame a two-set deficit in the first set late in the evening to defeat the reigning US Open champions in 2 hours and 4 minutes. The winners sealed the victory shortly before 10:30 p.m. London time.

In numbers: On Saturday, Siniakova won her third Wimbledon doubles title. Seven of her previous nine Grand Slam titles came with current women’s singles champion Barbora Krejcikova, and she won her eighth at Roland Garros last month alongside Coco Gauff.

Siniakova, who has won a Golden Slam in women’s doubles (all major titles plus the Olympic gold medal, all with Krejcikova), is the second player in two years to win Roland Garros and Wimbledon back to back with different partners. Hsieh Su-wei did the same last year when she won Roland Garros with Wang Xinyu and Wimbledon with Barbora Strycova.

And for Townsend, her first major title comes three years after the birth of her son, Adyn Aubrey. Townsend has come close to that success in recent seasons, finishing runner-up at the 2022 US Open (with Caty McNally) and 2023 Roland Garros (with Leylah Fernandez).

Townsend had already won three Grand Slam junior doubles titles (as well as one Grand Slam junior singles title) in 2012. Siniakova was able to repeat this feat the following year, winning three Grand Slam junior doubles titles in 2013 (all with Krejcikova).

Meanwhile, 2023 US Open champions Dabrowski and Routliffe continued their strong run, reaching their second Grand Slam final in 10 months. Routliffe is expected to become the first New Zealand player to reach No. 1 in the WTA doubles world rankings when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Excellent Grand Slam debut: Despite these striking similarities in their almost simultaneous junior careers, Siniakova and Townsend had never played together until this season. This was their first Grand Slam tournament as a pair and only their third tournament together overall.

But things went well for the duo at Wimbledon, where they defeated the two top seeds in the last two rounds. Before their final victory, Siniakova and Townsend defeated number one seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.

Game moments: Strong returns saw Dabrowski and Routliffe claim the first break of the day, saving two set points at 5-4. But on both of those occasions, solid returns from Siniakova in the midcourt prevailed, and a volley winner from Townsend finally leveled the score at 5-5.

The set went to a tiebreak, where Siniakova hit another crisp return winner from the forehand side to give her and Townsend two set points each. Former WTA doubles world number 1 Siniakova hit a solid swing volley to complete her team’s comeback in the first set.

In the second set, both pairs were in a tight spot when they were threatened on serve. Dabrowski and Routliffe both saved the break points they faced in the second set, while Siniakova and Townsend saved an astonishing 7 out of 7 break points in this set.

In the next tiebreak, Siniakova and Townsend took control, with Townsend giving her team a 3-0 lead with a series of thunderous overheads.

The fourth-seeded pair took five championship points at 6-1. After producing strong returns all evening, Siniakova and Townsend coaxed a double fault out of Routliffe on the first match point to end the match.

There’s more to come…