London (Reuters)
Australians Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell won the Wimbledon men’s doubles title, defeating Croatian title holders Mat Pavic and Nikola Micic 7-6, 6-7, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.
The Australian doubles to the final took a long journey, as the pair had to fight five sets in five of six matches and saved eight match points during that run.
It is the first Grand Slam title for Ebden and Purcell, who became the first Australian pair to win the men’s doubles at the All England Club, after Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodford 22 years ago.
“Mark Woodford was with us on the warm-up court this morning,” said Ebden, who lost in the mixed doubles final. Todd Woodbridge was talking to us too…they’re great.
Pavic, who is a left-handed player, played the match with a fracture of the right wrist and put on a splint, and despite that he tried his best, relying on backhands to play with one hand.
The Croatian said: “It was difficult to play like this, a level game. We were close to the title so it was frustrating. They deserve to win. We gave everything we had, and we fought in front of them. I think we are proud of ourselves.”
The match was completely equal in the first two sets that were decided in the tiebreak.
And the Croatian doubles gained the advantage after breaking service for the first time in the match, in the first half of the third set after a double fault from Purcell.
But the Australian duo bounced back at a 5-4 lead in the fourth set, sealing the set to extend the match into a decisive set on center court.
“Something changed towards the end of the third set,” Purcell said. We said we’re playing on the main court to have fun.
The Croatian doubles broke to take a 3-2 lead in the final set, with Pavic celebrating as Micic looked at him in disbelief as his teammate’s shot was accurate.
The Australian doubles managed to return the break to equalize 4-4, before the match extended to the tiebreak.
For the first time in the history of doubles competitions at Wimbledon, the match was decided in the tiebreak, which is played on the basis of the best ten points, and the two Australian players won the title after four hours and 11 minutes.
Ebden said of the Croatian doubles, who won gold in the Tokyo Olympics last year: They were close to beating us despite the injury, we are lucky to win. This shows how powerful they are. With this injury, they were close to winning Wimbledon.
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