By Tony Fairbairn At Wimbledon
- Neal Skupski is into the Men’s doubles final alongside Wesley Koolhof as they defeated Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in the semi-finals.
- Henry Searle knocked out Joao Fonseca to reach the semi-finals of the Boys singles.
- There were opening round wins for Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid in wheelchair singles.
LONDON, ENGLAND – Neal Skupski is into the Men’s doubles final alongside Wesley Koolhof as Henry Searle reached the juniors semi-finals at Wimbledon.
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Skupski into doubles final, O’Mara and Nicholls miss out on Mixed doubles final
Our doubles round-up starts with Neal Skupski as he is into another Wimbledon final but this time in the men’s doubles. Skupski has made a few mixed doubles finals before but has never been able to reach the men’s doubles final until now.
He and Wesley Koolhof are into the men’s doubles final after they defeated Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in the semi-finals. After defeating Ariel Behar and Adam Pavlasek in a dramatic three set match, the top seeds remained clutch to defeat the sixth seeds and one half of the defending champions in the form of Ebden.
Now they will face Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the final after the Spanish-Argentinian pairing defeated Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in straight sets. Krawietz and Puetz defeated Jamie Murray and Michael Venus in the previous round but were no match for the 2021 finalists who will have another chance at glory on Saturday.
In other doubles results there was semi-final heartbreak for Jonny O’Mara and Olivia Nicholls as they went out in three sets to Mate Pavic and Lyudmyla Kichenok. Despite a great second set, the British wildcards were just outpowered when it mattered most as their phenomenal run to the semi-finals came to an end.
Speaking of phenomenal Wimbledon runs, another run came to an end as Naiktha Bains and Maia Lumsden were knocked out in the quarter-finals. The British wildcards continued their run after a three set win over Viktoria Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova but their great tournament ended in the last eight with a heavy defeat to third seeds Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens.
After the match Bains admitted that they were disappointed with how they played against the third seeds.
“They’re not the No 3 seeds for nothing,” Bains told The Guardian.
“I think we’re more disappointed about the way we played out there. We just wanted to put on a better show. We didn’t get the best start but they ran away with it really. Credit to them, tough team and they played well.”
Meanwhile Lumsden said that their run to the quarter-finals should give them confidence as they now look to enter WTA events more regularly.
“I think obviously it gives us a lot of confidence that we’re winning matches at this level and going forward that’s going to be huge for us,” Lumsden said to The Guardian.
“Disappointed a bit today but they’re one of the top doubles teams in the world and they play together regularly, so it’s good to see where we’re at compared to that and where we can improve. Overall, obviously an amazing week for us to get to the quarters.
“We got into our first WTA [tournament] as a team in Warsaw, in Poland [the week after next]. Then we’re entering in Prague the week after. We’re going to try and use this now that our rankings are higher and play WTAs as much as we can, as many as we can.
“We’ll see where it takes us. But hopefully we can start playing the bigger events so we can get back into a slam off our own ranking soon.”
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Searle knocks out Fonseca to reach semi-finals
Onto Juniors now and Henry Searle’s dream run has continued as he is into the semi-finals of the Boys singles. The Brit defeated eighth seed Joao Fonseca in an impressive 7-6(3) 6-3 win over the Brazilian and will now play fourth seed Cooper Williams for a place in the final.
Searle was the only player to reach the semi-finals in singles after Ranah Akua Stoiber and Mika Stojsavljevic both exited at the quarter-final stage. Stoiber produced an incredible opening set but ultimately went out to talented Czech player Nikola Bartunkova 1-6 6-1 6-2.
Meanwhile Stojsavljevic produced a great second set comeback after trailing sixth seed Renata Jamrichova by a set and a break. The Brit came back to win the tiebreak 8-6 before losing to Jamrichova 6-1 in the third set as the sixth seed is into the last four.
However it has been a positive Juniors campaign for British tennis as this was the first time three singles players reached the quarter-finals of the Juniors since 2018 when Emma Raducanu, Jack Draper and Anton Matusevich achieved the feat.
Meanwhile in the doubles events, Hannah Klugman and Isabelle Lacy are all into the semi-finals. While Ella McDonald and Searle were knocked out at the quarter-final stage.
Hewett and Reid gain opening round wheelchair wins
Finally, the wheelchair events have kicked off with Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid beginning their singles campaigns with victories. Hewett defeated Belgian Joachim Gerard 6-3 6-4 while Reid scored an impressive victory over Argentinian Gustavo Fernandez 6-4 6-4.
Next for Hewett and Reid are Spaniard Martin De La Puente and top seed Tokito Oda respectively. Meanwhile the pairing also teamed up in doubles to win their semi-final on No.1 Court defeating De La Puente and Fernandez.
However Andy Lapthorne, Lucy Shuker and Gregory Slade all lost their opening round singles matches as well as losing their doubles matches.
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