Kudermetova: ‘I really wanted it. Now it's mine'

New York Times

15 hours ago

Follow live reaction as Jannik Sinner beats Carlos Alcaraz in four sets to become a four-time Grand Slam champion Getty Images
Jannik Sinner fought back to beat defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in four sets and win Wimbledon for the first time in his career.
The Italian No. 1 seed is now a four-time Grand Slam champion.
Alcaraz won the last two men's singles finals at Wimbledon and claimed the first set today. But Sinner was imperious from that point on, battling back to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and four minutes.
Follow live reaction below and share your thoughts by emailing [e-mail].
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Wimbledon final: Jannik Sinner beats Carlos Alcaraz to win first Wimbledon title Getty Images
Veronika Kudermetova is absolutely delighted.
💬 'It's special, my first slam in doubles,' she says after that three-set victory alongside Elise Mertens. 'A few years ago I was playing in the final here and had a few match points and lost that final and it was so painful.
'I really wanted it and this is mine now.' Getty Images
That was a really great final. It looked like it might go on forever given how hard they battled for individual points. But Mertens and Kudermetova, who have just taken a celebratory selfie before the trophy presentation, managed to pull past their opponents to be crowned Wimbledon champions. Getty Images
… just in case you ever wondered where the Wimbledon royal box guests get their humbugs and lemon sherbets from. Getty Images
Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens are Wimbledon champions!
They finally get over the line against Jelena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei, prevailing 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 on Centre Court. Getty Images
The women's doubles final is still in progress, which means there's a chance the men's singles final will start a little later than initially planned.
The scintillating 2025 French Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner lasted a monster 5 hours and 29 minutes.
With the later start time, if today's Wimbledon final also goes to five set we may well see a pause in play for the roof to go on. Getty Images
Catherine, Princess of Wales is back at Wimbledon after taking in the women's singles final yesterday.
She's joined by her husband Prince William and two of their three children: Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
Poor Prince Louis must be grounded.
Carlos Alcaraz, man of the people.
The Spaniard took time to show some love to the Wimbledon faithful after his training session earlier ahead of today's much-anticipated men's final against Jannik Sinner. Getty Images
Earlier today, Carlos Alcaraz warmed up on one of the outside courts adjacent to Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Thousands of fans who had arrived early for their day out at Wimbledon made a beeline for the small court, completely packing out the seating and snaking right around the ivy green walls that surround it.
Alcaraz was all smiles, posing for photographs with the adoring masses both before and after his practice session.
Jannik Sinner, on the other hand, opted to get ready for today's final on one of the small private practice courts. No fans. No distractions. Maximum focus. Getty Images
It is a little before 9 p.m. and there is just one more night until the opening day of Wimbledon.
A short walk from the All England Club, or a long, orderly queue away, a Wales flag is draped on the side of a red tent in a nearby park. This is where 'The Queue,' as the signs call it, starts.
The flag belongs to grandparents Vicky and Nigel Broad, a couple of 41 years from Neath, a town about 10 miles from Swansea in south Wales — and nearly 200 miles from this corner of south-west London. They arrived at Wimbledon Park, a grassy parkland which for 50 weeks of the year is an ordinary suburban recreational ground, on Friday lunchtime and unofficially queued for two nights before they were given the No.1 queue card, putting them in prime position for Centre Court tickets on the opening day.
For the first 10 days of the Championships, the queue gives tennis fans an opportunity to secure tickets to the show grounds, Centre Court, No.1 Court and No.2 Court, as well as ground passes for all the other courts. It is a rare chance to purchase on-the-day tickets for one of the world's biggest sporting events.
'There were three tents on Friday, 80 to 100 tents by Saturday and now there are hundreds,' Vicky tells The Athletic, as two people interrupt to congratulate her for being first in line. 'We've had a lot of people stop and say 'well done' for being first.'
Nigel, an old hand at the etiquette of Wimbledon queues, recalls camping on the streets before getting in to see John McEnroe win his first men's singles title in 1981, in the days when 'The Queue' wasn't the organized snaking line of thousands it is today.
'For us, this is clearly the best sporting event,' Nigel says.
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Wimbledon queue: The rules of a Grand Slam tradition on its first and last nights Getty Images
After 126 matches on the grass of the All England Club, men's tennis is back where it was five weeks ago, after 126 matches on the red clay of Roland Garros.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz are the last men standing in the Wimbledon final, revving up for another edition of their growing rivalry on the biggest stage in the sport.
In a semifinal that fell well short of its billing, Sinner plowed through an ailing Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to set up another Grand Slam final against Alcaraz, who beat him in over five hours and five sets of electric tennis in Paris. The sport now belongs to them: By the end of today, one of them will have won the past seven majors.
Alcaraz's irrepressible creativity and acrobatics bounce off Sinner's relentless power and rhythm.
Alcaraz's preternatural ability to flip defense into offense meets Sinner's ruthless, first-strike mastery.
No one else comes close.
Not even Djokovic, 38 and a seven-time Wimbledon champion, who shook his racket against the dying of the light on Centre Court. He was surging in the third set as he took a 3-0 lead. Then the feet stopped dancing, the fateful slip two points from the end of his quarterfinal against Flavio Cobolli proving one physical blow too many.
He has been the lone bulwark against Sinner and Alcaraz's rising tide for a while now. At some point, they will wash him away; maybe they already have.
In today's final, they will resume their exhibition of the future of tennis, with the head-to-head at 8-4 in Alcaraz's favor. It will be appointment viewing. Getty Images
Greg M: 'I'd like to see Sinner win today, I prefer his game/approach/understated personality. If Sinner wins it would even their rivalry a bit too. That said, Alcaraz seems quite a bit more comfortable on grass and has the strongest return of serve in the game today. I think he goes in as a solid favorite. It's no accident that he's won the last two Wimbledons.'
Murtz: 'My friend and I follow tennis — not just the slams but many of the other Masters tournaments, too. She always says that the final is not always the best to watch. I concur as I have seen many terrific matches in tournaments way before the finals. And yesterday Anisimova obviously didn't have one more match in her. At least she walks away with lots of money and will live to fight another day.'
Remember you can get in touch by emailing [e-mail]. We always love to hear from you. Getty Images
The star power of the Royal Box always goes up a few notches on finals weekend at Wimbledon.
Former cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, actress Nicole Kidman and former Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Magazine Anna Wintour are currently enjoying the women's doubles final on Centre Court. Caoimhe O'Neill
Celeb watch at Wimbledon never stops. Former One Direction singer Niall Horan is here watching the women's doubles final on Centre Court.
Here they are again, five weeks later. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will walk onto Centre Court for the Wimbledon final Sunday, just over a month after their French Open final classic. At the same time, they will float further away from the rest of the field at the top of their sport.
Before they duelled for five hours and 29 minutes on the Roland Garros clay, that match already had a pyrrhic quality for the rest of the ATP Tour.
One of Alcaraz and Sinner had to lose that final. And Sinner eventually lost it in one of the worst ways, having held three championship points and having served for the title. But as they rocketed groundstrokes and fizzed across the red brickdust and carved out extraordinary angles, it became clearer and clearer that, in the grand scheme of tennis, neither player would lose that final, everybody else would, even the player best placed to be a bulwark against their rising tide: 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.
Read more below ahead of today's much anticipated final.
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Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner's Wimbledon final closes Grand Slam Sliding Doors
Hsieh/Ostapenko 6-3, 0-0* Kudermetova/Mertens
After dropping five straight games to lose the first set, the duo Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens put together a dominant second set to force a winner-takes-all third set in the 2025 Wimbledon women's doubles final.
The Tennis Podcast team will be live from Wimbledon in around half an hour to preview today's men's final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
There will be an opportunity for a Q&A during the show so make sure you also join the live chat over on YouTube to get your questions in for Catherine, David and Matt.
On Centre Court, Jelena Ostapenko is one set away from becoming world No. 1 — in doubles.
She is partnering Hsieh Su-wei, who has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles, including five at Wimbledon, and they are a set up on Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens.
But the Russian-Belgian duo has come storming back in the second to lead 4-1. This looks ready to go to a decider. Getty Images
The schedule of this year's Wimbledon finals has been altered with global tennis fans in mind.
Iga Świątek's 6-0 6-0 dismantling of Amanda Anisimova in Saturday's women's final came in double quick time, but actually took place two hours later than normal.
Both the men's and women's showpiece matches have traditionally been scheduled in the early afternoon with a 2pm local time start.
This year, however, that has been changed with the women's final preceded by the men's doubles final, which opened proceedings on Centre Court.
Why? The answer lies with the television audience worldwide and getting as many tennis-interested eyeballs on the biggest matches of the tournament as possible.
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Why the Wimbledon final start times are two hours later this year Getty Images
Neil Stubley, Wimbledon's head of courts and horticulture, is the man in charge of keeping the tennis courts pristine as he enters his 30th tournament.
He and his team of 18, which grows to 31 during the event, are responsible for 'anything that grows' — including weeds. Stubley says:
'Every day we test the ball bounce height and the hardness of the surface.
'If they're getting too hard, we can add a little more water. If they get too soft, we can just hold off on irrigation and let Mother Nature dry it out a little more.
'Last week, it got its final liquid fertilizer on to give it the right color that we need.'