The third time was not the charm for Gabriela Dabrowski at Wimbledon.
Dabrowski and partner Luisa Stefani were beaten in the ladies doubles final on Sunday by 10th seeds Hanyu Guo and Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets. It was the Ottawan’s third loss in the Wimbledon final in her career. The grass major is the only one of the four where she has never claimed either a women’s or mixed doubles title.
On Sunday, Dabrowski and Stefani found themselves playing from behind early and, despite being the higher-seeded team, never managed to wrestle control away from their opponents. Guo and Mladenovic bookended the match with multi-game runs to secure the trophy with a 6-3, 7-5 win.
The second seeds will be left regretting their missed opportunities. They had more break-point chances in the match but only managed to convert one of five. The 10th seeds were successful on three of their four break points.
Guo and Mladenovic set the tone right from the start, breaking both Dabrowski and Stefani in each of their first service games on their way to a quick 5-0 lead. The Canadian-Brazilian duo started to show signs of getting back into it when they had a pair of break points in the fifth game on Guo’s serve, but could not convert.
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They narrowly avoided getting bageled when Dabrowski battled through a tough service game for a hold, battling through multiple deuces but managing to avoid a break point. In the following game, the second seeds recovered one of the breaks when Stefani punched away a volley winner. The Brazilian then held to love to get back to 5-3 but that was as close as they would get. Guo stopped the comeback bid with a hold to wrap up the opening set.
Dabrowski set a better tone to start the second, delivering a routine hold to put the second seeds ahead on the scoreboard for the first time all day, albeit still on serve. They had a chance to break in their first return game of the set but a backhand miss cost them and Guo managed to hold.
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They missed another break point on Mladenovic’s serve in the fourth game before having to save one on Dabrowski’s delivery in the fifth. From there, the two pairs settled in, with the next five games going to the server without facing a break point.
Late in the second, Guo and Mladenovic made their move. At 5-5, they opened Stefani’s service game with back-to-back winners, eventually going up love-40. On the first break point, Guo’s return slipped past Dabrowski at the net and dropped in for a winner to give the 10th seeds the chance to serve out the match. Mladenovic made no mistake, holding to 15 when Stefani overcooked her return on match point.
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It was Mladenovic’s second Wimbledon title. Her first came in mixed doubles back in 2013 alongside Canadian Daniel Nestor.
Wimbledon remains the major where Canada currently has the longest title drought. The last Canuck to lift a professional trophy at the All-England Club was Vasek Pospisil, who won the men’s doubles in 2014. Denis Shapovalov won the boys singles title in 2016.
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Feature Photo: Martin Sidorjak
