The rag-tag American-Brit combo of Neal Skupski and Desirae Krawczyk has done it again, repeating last year’s mixed doubles conquest with a 64 63 final win yesterday vs Australian’s Matt Ebden and Sam Stosur.
The successful title defense was the first at Wimbledon in mixed since Cyrul Suk and sister Helena Sukova did it in 1997.
There were some ironies involved in the victory. Earlier yesterday Ebden (with Max Purcell) won a marathon five setter in the Gentleman’s semis vs Joe Salisbury, the world’s no. 1 doubles player (and Rajeev Ram), 36 67 76 (11-9) 64 62.
Salisbury was supposed to play mixed this tournament with Krawczyk but decided to pull out late to focus his energies on Gentleman’s doubles. Salisbury and Krawczyk won 2021 Roland Garros and 2021 US Open mixed together.
So Krawczyk called her old partner Skupski at the last minute to ask to reunite since Salisbury abandoned her. Skupski decided to reunite with Krawczyk which meant he had to dump Gaby Dabrowski, who was supposed to be his partner at 2022 Wimbledon mixed.
Dabrowski managed to find John Peers for mixed at the very last minute and that team reached the quarterfinals before falling to Sania Mirza and Mate Pavic 46 63 57. Mirza and Pavic then lost to Skupski and Krawczyk in the semi 64 57 64.
Krawczyk is the first American to defend a Wimbledon title since Billie Jean King in the 1973 and 1974. Skupski is the first Brit to win back to back mixed titles since John Lloyd in 1983 and 1984.
Desirae Krawczyk · Neal Skupski · Wimbledon
