Cabal And Farah Knock Out Mahut In Men’s Doubles, Snigur Takes Wimbledon Girls’ Title

By Ricky Dimon

 

Nicolas Mahut got knocked down once, twice, and a third time. Finally, following a marathon Wimbledon men’s doubles final, he was down for the count.

 

Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah captured their first Grand Slam title by outlasting Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3 after four hours and 57 minutes on Saturday.

 

It was supposed to be an afternoon match, and started as such when the women’s singles final between Simona Halep and Serena Williams–won by Halep 6-2, 6-2–lasted less than an hour. But the men’s doubles match spilled over well into the night, forcing the roof to be closed prior to the fifth set and postponing the women’s doubles final from Saturday to Sunday.

 

Speaking of spills, Mahut first got drilled just above his left eye midway through the first set. That required a five-minute medical timeout during which ice was applied to reduce obvious swelling. Then on back-to-back points in the fifth set, the Frenchman again got nailed and went down to the turf–first in the shoulder and for the third and final time almost somewhere too close to the groin region. Exactly one point later, Roger-Vasselin promptly hit Cabal, albeit not in a bad way.

Whereas the first incident was scary, the final exchange of peggings was harmless and thoroughly amused the crowd. It was a crowd that included Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle in the front row of the Royal Box.

 

“(It’s) not every day the whole royalty of the UK is watching you play tennis,” Farah assured. “I mean, it’s just indescribable. That court is just magical. I don’t have any other words to describe that court; it’s just magical. Every time I’ve been in that court I feel the same thing.

 

“It’s the best court on tour,” Cabal agreed.

 

“You’re just in the most exclusive tennis court in the world,” Farah continued. “The whole history that court has is just crazy. To think you grew up watching it, now you’re winning in it, just becomes even more magical.”

 

Girls’ singles champion Daria Sigur was similarly awed by Court 1. That’s where the 17-year-old Ukrainian defeated Alexa Noel of the United States 6-4, 6-4.

 

“I can’t believe it,” Snigur said. “It was my dream. It’s very good for me. I worked hard every day for this trophy. It’s incredible.”

 

“When I saw the stadium, I (was) really happy, I (was) really scared. But I must to play.”

 

Snigur played alright. As for Cabal and Farah, they played, and played, and played, and played some more. All three can now say they are Wimbledon champions.

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.

 

Editor’s Note • The Ladies Doubles Finals was moved from today’s order of play till Sunday’s. They waited out the men’s doubles…. and waited and waited. And waited.

It was awesome to see that the suits at Wimby let the “HILL People” with ground passes in to Center Court to see the fifth set. The fans were able to occupy empty seats. Now that’s awesome! Beats a hill and big screen any day. Felt really badly for Nicolas Mahut  the whole Wimbledon 2019. First his dubs partner bailed on him. Saying he wanted to concentrate on his own singles (Herbert) then he played dubs with Andy Murray. Ok. Then Wimbledon wouldn’t give him a wildcard (WC). So he played in singles qualies and lost. Then in this finals he just seemed to keep moving like a magnate into the ball or punching bag into the opponents shot. Ricky and I saw head and I saw throat or neck and yes looks like the big ouchie place. Then he missed a sitter volley. So it was amazing but bittersweet. How could Wimbledon not give him a wildcard? Wasn’t he the little guy ok everyone looks little next to John Isner ten years ago? Will that ever happen again? Did it happen in a 100 previous years? It ok. It’s old news? It’s amazing. Nicolas Mahut, we Love You!  You are a competitor  in your own League. The Best! (LJ)