Latvian tennis player Alena Ostapenko continues her fight for the title at Wimbledon. Together with Salvadoran Marcelo Arevalo, she won the semifinal match and reached the mixed doubles final for the first time since 2019.
Seeded second, Ostapenko and Arevalo defeated the third-seeded pair — American Christian Harrison and Chinese Zhang Shuai — in the semifinals with a score of 6:3, 5:7, 6:4.
The match was tense. The Latvian-Salvadoran duo confidently took the first set thanks to a break at the end, but in the second set, their opponents managed to equalize by executing a decisive break in the last game.
The fate of the final spot was decided in the third set. Ostapenko and Arevalo made a key break in the seventh game and maintained their advantage until the end of the match. When serving for the match, they failed to convert two match points in a row, but the third attempt was successful.
Throughout the match, the winners hit 16 aces compared to nine by their opponents. They converted three out of six break points, while Harrison and Zhang Shuai managed to capitalize on only two out of 12 opportunities.
Reaching the final allowed Ostapenko to match her best achievement in mixed doubles at Grand Slam tournaments. The last time she played in the Wimbledon mixed final was in 2019 with Swedish player Robert Lindstedt.
In the decisive match, Ostapenko and Arevalo will face the Australian duo Mark Polmans — Storm Hunter.
For Ostapenko, this remains her last chance to finish the current Wimbledon with a title. In singles, she reached the third round, and in doubles, she exited in the second round.
Wimbledon is the third tournament of the Grand Slam series in the season and traditionally takes place on grass courts. The mixed doubles final will be an opportunity for the Latvian tennis player to win a title at this tournament in mixed doubles for the first time in her career.
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