Leander Paes wins 16th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon

LONDON: A vintage Leander Paes clinched his 16th Grand Slam trophy, winning the mixed doubles event of the Wimbledon Championship with legendary Martina Hingis after a dominating win over Alexander Peya and Timea Babos, here today.
Seventh seed Indo-Swiss pair drubbed the fifth seed Austrian-Hungarian team 6-1 6-1 in the lop-sided summit clash which was over in just 40 minutes.

It was Paes' eighth mixed doubles title and second with Hingis. They had won the Australian Open early this year.
42-year-old Paes has eight men's doubles crowns in his Grand Slam collection.
Paes' win capped an incredibly successful Wimbledon for India as the country took three titles this year. Sania Mirza won the women's doubles and Saumit Nagal won the junior boys doubles trophy.

For Hingis, it was second title in as many days, having won the women's doubles with Sania. Overall it was 18th Major title for the Swiss and third in mixed doubles.
Hingis was back on court less than 24 hours after that win with Sania but showed no sign of fatigue. She served well and was terrific at the net, complementing the Indian Pro.
Paes and Hingis literally toyed with Peya and Babos, who surprisingly failed to put any resistance.
In no time Paes and Hingis pocketed the first set as all they needed was 19 minutes to nose ahead. Two broke Babos in the fourth game and Peya in the sixth for a 5-1 cushion. Hingis served out the set when Paes smashed a volley winner.
Paes and Hingis kept the pressure on the Austrian- American combination right from the first game of the second set. Peya failed to negotiate a Paes return at deuce to hand the seventh seeds grabbed the opportunity to break them.

Babos' could not handle a Hingis return and the Indo- Swiss pair got an early break. There was no stopping them from there as they raced to victory in less than one hour.

Babos failed to hold her serve even once and it was on her return that Paes hit a deft backhand volley winner to close the contest.

Sania Mirza, history maker at Wimbledon

Those tennis fans in India who had not stayed up late to watch the women's doubles final at SW19 on Saturday night woke up to good news coming in from London early on Sunday morning, what with the pair of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza having come from behind to win the title. It is, by all means, a momentous achievement for the women's game in India and has put Sania, 28, on a pedestal atop which no Indian woman has stepped before.

India, applaud your first women's Wimbledon championship winner.

The country's most successful female tennis player has gone where no compatriot had before. Paired with Hingis, the former world No 1 who was forced into temporary retirement in 2002 at the age of 22, the Hyderabad star rallied back from a shaky start to beat the formidable Russian pairing of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

In what was an intense match spanning two-and-a-half hours at Centre Court, including a 15-minute hold-up as the retractable roof was closed shut, Sania and Hingis overcame some dominant tennis from the No 2 seeds who were more powerful for the majority of the gripping contest. Sania was broken in the first game and Hingis in the 11th, and the pair lost the first set - the first time in the tournament that they had done so. To win from here was spectacular.

After victory, Hingis reflected on what it felt like to wait 17 years to add a fourth Wimbledon title. "It feels like another life," said the 34-year-old. "But 17 years, usually you're lucky to win it once or happy to be out here and play on the Wimbledon grounds. It's above my expectations."

Sitting next to her, Sania had reason to feel like she'd been waiting a long time to get her hands on the trophy. For it was 12 years ago, in 2003, when as a 16-year-old Sania became the first Indian girl to win a Grand Slam when she triumphed in the doubles' event at Wimbledon, partnering Alisa Kleybanova of Russia. "It means everything to be here today," she said.

The road since then had been bumpy, but in 12 years since turning pro she has made India proud on several occasions. While her singles career never reached the heights Sania would have liked, in the doubles' category she has soared.

In 2009, Sania became India's first woman to win a Grand Slam, lifting the Australian Open with Bhupathi. In 2011, she came close to winning a women's double title in 2011 when she partnered Elena Vesnina to the French Open final, but in 2012 the Sania-Mahesh Bhupathi pairing won the French Open and then in 2014 Sania added the US Open crown with Bruno Soares. Now, a Wimbledon championship.
That this achievement came three months after Saina Nehwal became the first Indian woman shuttler to be world No 1 after her India Open Grand Prix Gold triumph is a shot in the arm for female athletes in the country. "I hope this inspires a lot of girls back home, that we can become Grand Slam champions," Sania said at the post-match presentation.

Hingis does not have much time to relax because later on Sunday she will pair up with Paes, 42, for the Wimbledon mixed doubles' final. It could prove to be a bumper tennis weekend for India should Hingis and Paes emerge winners tonight against Austria's Alexander Peya and Hungary's Timea Babos, but what Sania and her partner have achieved will resonate louder than anything that pairing is able to do. This is a big day for the women's game in India.

Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer to win third Wimbledon title

LONDON: Defending champion Novak Djokovic won a third Wimbledon title and a ninth Grand Slam crown on Sunday, ruthlessly shattering Roger Federer's bid for a record eighth All England Club triumph.
World number one Djokovic won 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (10/12), 6-4, 6-3 to add the Wimbledon title to the Australian Open he captured in January.
It was a cathartic moment for Djokovic just a month after his heartbreaking French Open final defeat against Stan Wawrinka -- a loss that denied him the only major title he has yet to win.


For 33-year-old Federer, it was a bitterly disappointing end to his bid to become the oldest Wimbledon champion of the Open Era.
The 17-time major winner has now gone three years since his last Grand Slam triumph.
But he had his chances. In a rollercoaster rematch of last year's final, he was 4-2 up in the first set and had two set points.
Federer then had to save seven set points in the second set before bravely levelling the contest.
However, Djokovic, five years Federer's junior, stepped on the gas and raced away to the title.


Sunday's final was the pair's 40th career meeting and 12th in the Grand Slams.
Djokovic was playing in his 17th major final compared to Federer's 26th.

But despite Federer's majestic triumph over Andy Murray in the semi-finals, which suggested he was not ready for the retirement home just yet, Sunday's reality check looks certain to leave the Swiss thwarted in his quest to add to his record 17 Grand Slam title collection.
In front of a Royal Box crammed with tennis and Hollywood A-listers, including Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Grant and Bradley Cooper, Federer was in the early ascendancy.
He broke for a 4-2 lead but Djokovic hit straight back condemning the Swiss to just his second lost service game in 94 served up at the tournament.

Federer then saw two set points disappear in the 12th game, both saved courtesy of back-to-back 120mph serves.
Djokovic capitalised on his escape, racing through the tiebreaker with six consecutive points to claim the opener when Federer served up a double fault.
The Serb committed just three unforced errors in the first set, a key statistic in what would always be a tight encounter.
By contrast, Federer hit 11, the same as he suffered throughout his semi-final win over Murray.
Federer wasted two break points in the fifth and 11th games of the second set having saved a first set point in the 10th.
That paved the way for a titanic tiebreak where the 33-year-old saved six more set points before levelling the final on his second set point.
At 12/10, it was the longest tiebreak in a Wimbledon final since 2000 when Pat Rafter faced Pete Sampras with the set taking 65 gripping minutes to complete.
To his credit, Djokovic swiftly recovered, breaking for a 2-1 lead in the third set which became 3-2 when rain forced them off for 20 minutes.
The world number one confidently wrapped up the set 6-4 with just two unforced errors even if the brief stoppage had dampened the fireworks of the second set.

Djokovic was strangling the life out of Federer's game and another break gave him a 3-2 lead in the fourth set.

The title was his on the stroke of the third hour with a sweeping forehand into an open court.

As has become the Serb's tradition, he celebrated by pulling out a piece of Centre Court grass and eating it.