One season was enough for Croatian tennis duo Nikola Miktic and Mate Pavic to lift the trophy at Wimbledon. This is the first Grand Slam title together, and also the first for Mektic, while for Pavic it is the third.
In the final, the Croats defeated the Spanish duo Marcel Granollers (Spain) and Horacio Zeballos (Argentina), who were seeking their first Grand Slam title. c
Victory on Saturday, the 32- and 28-year-old Croatian duo respectively, have already claimed eight titles in 2021 at ATP levels of 250, 500, 1000 and Grand Slam; Among the most relevant are the Masters 1000 in Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome and now Wimbledon.
Miktic and Pavic also made history by being the first Croatian players to win the Wimbledon men’s doubles title. In addition, they are the first tennis players from their country to win at the All England Club since their reference, Goran Ivanisevic, won in 2001 in the singles and since Ivan Dodig won the mixed doubles in 2019 with Latisha Chan.
“That’s something special, this is by far the best tournament in the world… Especially for me and I think for Nikola too, we all grew up watching Goran (Ivanisevic). It’s been 20 years since he won the final on Monday, and it’s the first time he’s won Another Croat won the title, “We are very excited,” said Pavic.
The youngest tennis player to date has two Grand Slam titles on his record, the 2020 US Open (with Brazilian Bruno Soares) and the 2018 Australian Open (with Austrian Oliver Marach).
Nikola Miktik lost his only final match at this level last year at the US Open (with Dutchman Wesley Kohlhoff).
“The last three games we played were probably the best three games of my life, the best three games I’ve been in,” Mektic said at the end of their Wimbledon final.
None of the Croatian tennis players were part of the world’s top 200 in the singles ranking, however, as of July 12, they became the first and second tennis players in the doubles ranking. Pavic reclaimed the number one spot in April of this year after holding it for six consecutive weeks in 2018.
The duo must now work to the rhythm of the Olympics in Tokyo.
“We’ll have a few days to adapt, the calendar isn’t the best, but we’re arriving with great confidence and we know we’ll have a good chance there.”
