Saturday features the championship matches in both ladies’ singles and gentlemen’s doubles.
A new Wimbledon champion will be crowned on Saturday, as five-time Major champ Iga Swiatek takes on Major final debutante Amanda Anisimova. Will Iga’s experience and returning prowess prevail, or will it be Amanda’s formidable serve and backhand? Either way, we will have a ninth different woman raising the Venus Rosewater Dish out of the last nine Championships at The All-England Club.
Earlier in the day, at 1:00pm local time on Centre Court, it’s Rinky Hijikata and David Pel vs. Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool (5) for the gentlemen’s doubles championship. It’s been an unexpected yet impressive run from Hijikata and Pel, who have survived three deciding-set tiebreaks, and upset two of the top three seeds. Hijikata won the 2023 Australian Open in this discipline alongside Jason Kubler, while this is by far the biggest final of Pel’s career.
Cash and Glasspool defeated defending champions Patten and Heliovaara in the quarterfinals, then took out Roland Garros champions Granollers and Zeballos in the semis. They are the first all-British team to advance to the gentlemen’s doubles final at The Championships since 1960, as both now play in their first Major final.
Amanda Anisimova (13) vs. Iga Swiatek (8) – Not Before 4:00pm on Centre Court
It is quite surprising to see both of these players in this championship match. For Swiatek, it’s coming off a 52-week span where she hadn’t reached a WTA final, even on her beloved clay. And it was a 52-week span full of disappointments: the upset at the Paris Olympics, the failed drug test, the Australian Open semifinal loss despite holding match point, etc. But it seems the end of the clay court season, and all the expectations it comes with for Iga, has freed up her game. She’s now reached two consecutive finals on her worst surface, and her first at SW19.
For Anisimova, this comes over six years after her first Major semifinal, and three years since she had last appeared in a quarterfinal. Amanda was dealt a terrible blow shortly after that 2019 semifinal, with the sudden loss of her father. She eventually took a long break from the sport to focus on her mental health, and wasn’t even ranked high enough to play this event a year ago, losing in the last round of qualifying. But a few months after claiming her first WTA 1000 title, Anisimova is a Wimbledon finalist.
Swiatek relinquished only one set on her way to this championship match, gaining confidence on the grass with every round. And she’s a perfect 5-0 in Major finals, with a superb record of 22-5 in WTA finals overall. Prior to her loss two weeks ago in the final of Bad Homburg to Jessica Pegula, Iga had won her last nine finals. Swiatek is one of the sport’s best performers on big stages.
Anisimova endured a trio of three-setters across the last four rounds, including a dramatic semifinal where she upset World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka. She’s now 31-12 on the year, and 12-2 on grass, having also reached the final of the inaugural WTA event at Queen’s Club. This is only a seventh career final for Amanda, and she’s 3-3 in this round, with losses in two of the three finals she’s contested within the past year.
There’s no shared history to study between these two, as it’s a rare first-career meeting in a Major final. The contrast of styles between the elite returning skills of Swiatek, and the superior serving of Anisimova, should make for a compelling matchup, as will their radical differences in experience. However, I wonder if Iga will feel more pressure as the more proven commodity at this level, and if Amanda will find some relief in knowing there’s less expectations resting on her shoulders.
As improved as Swiatek’s game has been on this surface, grass courts still favor the better server. And Iga is yet to face a player as imposing as Anisimova during this fortnight. So I give the ever-so-slight edge to Amanda to win her first Major title, and to become the third American woman to win a Major singles title this year.
Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.
