Storm Hunter’s Wimbledon title dream has been ended at the last hurdle as inspired tennis mum Barbora Strycova farewelled the grass-court grand slam on a high.
The 28-year-old Queenslander and Belgian partner Elise Mertens ran into an inspired display from the veteran pairing of Strycova and Su-Wei Hsieh in the women’s doubles final.
They were beaten 7-5 6-4 in an entertaining match lasting nine minutes under two hours.
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While disappointing for Hunter and Mertens, it was a wonderful way for Strycova to bow out from her final Wimbledon.
“I will love this tournament for ever,” the champion said through tears.
The 37-year-old came out of retirement this year after giving birth to son Vincent in October 2021.
“Last year I texted Su-Wei – ‘let’s try to play Wimbledon 2023 just to come back and feel the atmosphere. There is no COVID any more’,” Strcyova said.
“She was like ‘yeah, let’s do that, let’s just have fun’. Here we are with the trophy. It’s crazy.”
Su-Wei, also 37, missed the entirety of the 2022 season and the 2023 Australian Open but has now won two grand slams in a row.
The veteran won the French Open with Wang Xinyu last month.
After falling at the semi-final stage in 2021 – when Mertens won the title with Su-Wei – Hunter was proud in defeat to have reached the championship match.
“It was a tough match, they played really well. It’s nice to see them back,” the Australian said.
“For me it’s a dream come true to play here on Centre Court in the doubles final.
“Thank you to Elise, to my team here and also my team back home. I think it’s 4am or 5am in Australia, hopefully they stayed up to watch.”
Hunter and Mertens were third seeds and already successful in the Italian Open this year, but the unseeded Czech-Taiwanese combination were champions here in 2019 and they produced a superb display of volleying.
Hunter, the world’s No.7 at doubles, struggled on serve being broken four times, though she was not alone.
After four breaks of serve the opening set was poised at 5-6 when Hunter was broken after a lengthy 12th game involving six deuces.
She was broken again in the second set as she and Mertens fell 3-1 down.
However, they broke back and Hunter then secured a crucial hold to make the score 4-4.
But at 4-5, with rain thundering onto the roof so hard the players could barely hear each other, Mertens was broken.
Hunter would have been the first Australian winner in the event since Rennae Stubbs and Zimbabwean Cara Black in 2004.
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