The end of one Wimbledon tradition was confirmed on Thursday, with confirmation that doubles matches will be cut from best-of-five sets to three.
Doubles greats such as Australia’s Todd Woodbridge bemoaned the unsurprising call, however – which comes into effect this year – describing it as “heartbreaking”.
Wimbledon doubles matches will now be best of three sets.Credit:AP
It does bring the strawberries-and-cream set into line with other slams and ATP and WTA events, but represents an eye-catching change after 138 years.
Of course, it’s not like Wimbledon to change what they’re used to.
While it was one move from the All England Club that upset a few, the travelling tennis tour is awaiting a far more important decision – whether Russian and Belarusian athletes will be banned in London for a second straight year in July.
There was some movement on that front on Thursday, however, after the Australian Olympic Committee indicated that sanctions will still be in place for those athletes at the Paris Olympics next year.
Legendary Lleyton
Dual grand slam champion Lleyton Hewitt has this week recalled his famous victory over all-time great and childhood idol Pete Sampras in the 2001 US Open final as an “out-of-body experience”.
Hewitt reflected on his brilliant career on the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s inaugural episode on the TennisWorthy podcast, including being the youngest ever No.1 at age 20 (until teenager Carlos Alcaraz’s ascension last year).
“I felt like that at that age, you could run through a brick wall and the next day be fine,” he said.
“I don’t remember having a whole heap of physio and treatment that I certainly needed in the second half of my career.”
Lleyton Hewitt triumphs in the 2001 US Open final.Credit:AP
The 2002 Wimbledon championship is also among Hewitt’s 30 singles titles and provided one of his “proudest moments”, while he played a leading role in Davis Cup triumphs before now serving as Australia’s Davis Cup captain.
But the win over 14-time grand slam winner Sampras in New York stands out.
“I was pretty excited to play Pete Sampras, as a guy I idolised and looked up to,” Hewitt said.
“I wasn’t really that nervous – I was more nervous for the coin toss, since Pete was on the other side of the net.
“I broke him in the opening game and realised nobody else can break him, but I can. It was an out-of-body experience, and it was very special.”
First time for everything
Brazilians Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos eliminated Australian pairing Marc Polmans and Olivia Gadecki in the mixed doubles semi-finals on Wednesday night and can make history on Friday.
Maria Bueno and Gustavo Kuerten are Brazil’s greatest players, while Beatriz Haddad Maia is inside the top 20 in the WTA singles rankings and doubles veterans Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares are both grand slam champions.
But an all-Brazilian team has never won a grand slam title together, so Stefani and Matos are on the verge of changing that.
Their final opponents are India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna. Mirza, a former doubles world No.1 who has won six major titles, is preparing for her last match, 18 years after she made her grand slam debut at the Australian Open.
