European players excelled at Junior Wimbledon, where unseeded Carlos Gimeno Valero became the fifth ever Spaniard, male or female, to make the final. He followed in the footsteps of past champions Manolo Orantes (1967) and Alejandro Davidovich (2017) as well as runners-up Javier Sanchez (1986) and Magui Serna (1996). The upsets started in round one, where he defeated third seed Thiago Augustin Tirante (ARG) and continued in round three where he came back from a set down to topple 13th seeded Romanian Filip Cristian Jianu. His straight sets win over #17 Harold Mayot won him a place in the final where his amazing run came to a 6-3 6-2 end at the hands of Shintaro Mochizuki (JPN).
The top seed and recent French Open junior champion Holger Rune of Denmark made a great start to the tournament with a pair of easy wins, although the dream of back-to-back Grand Slams eluded the Dane, who fell in the third round to Briton Anton Matusevich. Carlos Alcaraz Garfia, also made a great run as the number 10 seed, breezing through the early rounds and then coming through a very tough three-set win in the third round to eventually fall in the quarterfinals to the fourth seeded American Martin Damm. The 2016 European 14&U Champion Dalibor Svrcina (CZE), although unseeded here, was always a threat having his own fantastic run all the way to the quarterfinals before falling to the eventual runner-up.
Daria Snigur of Ukraine (pictured) became the first Ukrainian girl to ever win the junior girls’ title. She defeated tenth seed Alexa Noel (USA) in the final 6-4 6-4. Although unseeded, she upset the reigning European 16&U Champion Kamille Bartone (LAT) in the first round and maintained her devastating form all the way to the semi-finals where she crushed top seeded Emma Navarro, recent runner-up at the French Open juniors, gifting the American just one game.
Other notable European results include those of semi-finalists Diane Parry (FRA) as well as Elsa Jacquemot (FRA) and Polina Kudermetova (RUS). Another fantastic story to emerge in SW19 was that of 14-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova, who was ecstatic in having made the third round. The youngest player in the draw was one the players making headlines at Wimbledon, along with her Mouratoglou Academy mate Coco Gauff. The reigning Les Petits As champion, Fruhvirtova’s prodigious talents will next be on display at the European 18&U Championships in Klosters in two weeks.
Boys’ Doubles: Jonas Forejtek & Jiri Lehecka (CZE) defeated Liam Draxl (CAN) & Govind Nanda (USA)
Girls’ Doubles: Savannah Broadus & Abigail Forbes (USA) defeated Kamille Bartone (LAT) & Oksana Selekhmeteva (UKR)
Simona Shocks Serena, Novak Pips Roger
Wimbledon 2019 served up many memorable stories. Simona Halep put in arguably the most impressive performance of her career to claim her second Grand Slam title against Serena Williams. She was consistent, strong, fast and put in an impressive 3 unforced errors to Williams’ 26 to win her second Grand Slam 6-2 6-2 in less than an hour.
Causing a sensation was 15-year-old Cori Gauff. The Tennis Europe #1 ranked player made a huge impact at this year’s tournament, having won through qualifying and backing that up with three more wins in the main draw to loudly make a name for herself. Her fairytale however, came to an end with a straight sets loss in round 4 over the ever-so-solid Halep.
Another name to look out for is Kaja Juvan, the 2017 champion at the 18&U European Junior Championships. The Slovenian pushed Serena Willams to three sets in round 2 and looks to be on the cusp of achieving greater success. It was also a great event for Barbora Strycova (CZE) who became the oldest ever Grand Slam semi-final debutante. Her tennis came together in London and she was in such great form that she also won the doubles finals - a fantastic tournament for her.
Novak Djokovic’s domination of the men’s tour continues as he claimed his fifth Wimbledon trophy and sixteenth Grand Slam. In just under five gruelling hours, the Serb defeated Roger Federer, winning all of his sets in tiebreaks, 7-6(5) 1-6 7-6(4) 4-6 13-12(5). Just as in the women’s final, it was disappointment for the sentimental favourite, who had previously seen off an old foe, Rafael Nadal, in a four-set semi-final.
Elsewhere, three of the biggest NextGen names, Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev all had surprising losses, stumbling at the first hurdle. Meanwhile the ‘Big Three’ continued to dominate the headlines as well as the pretenders to their thrones.
Men’s Doubles: Juan Sebasian Cabal & Robert Farah (COL) defeated Nicolas Mahut & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA)
Women’s Doubles: Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) & Barbora Strycova (CZE) defeated Gabriela Dobrowski (CAN) & Yifan Xu (CHN)
Mixed Doubles: Ivan Dodig (CRO) & Latisha Chan (TPE) defeated Robert Lindstedt (SWE) & Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)