July 13, 2023 – Croatian tennis player Mate Pavić and Ukrainian tennis player Lyudmyla Kichenok have won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title!
They reached the title by defeating Belgian player Joran Vliegen and partner Chinese Xu Yifan in the final 6-4, 6-7 (9), 6-3 after two hours and seven minutes of play.
For 30-year-old Mate Pavić, this is the third Grand Slam title in mixed doubles and the first at the All England Club, while his partner Lyudmyla Kichenok won her first trophy in her first final.
Pavić won the mixed doubles title in 2016 at the US Open with German partner Laura Siegemund and in 2018 at the Australian Open with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski, with whom he played in the Roland Garros final twice (2018 and 2019). The Paris title is the only one he’s missing to complete his Grand Slam collection, just like in men’s doubles.
Pavić and Kichenok were the better pair in the first set and a break in the seventh game gave them the 4-3 lead. That was enough for the Croatian-Ukrainian pair to win the first part of the duel.
The second set was an even fight, and Pavić and Kichenok again had the only chance to break in the third game. The winner of the second set fell to a tie-break. The Croatian-Ukrainian pair took a 2-0 lead, but Vliegen and Xu won the next three points. After saving two set points from the Belgian-Chinese pair, Pavić and Kichenok reached the first match point with an 8-7 lead. Vliegen and Xu won the third set by using the fourth set point for 11-9.
Pavić and Kichenok survived the third set and a break in the eighth game gave them a chance to win. Mate Pavić served and led them to victory.
This is Pavić’s sixth senior Grand Slam title in total, as he also won three in men’s doubles competition: Australian Open 2018 with Austrian Oliver Marach, US Open 2020 with Brazilian Bruno Soares, and Wimbledon 2021 with Nikola Mektic.
Source: HRT
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