London, July 09, 2012: DAY 13: A familiar name will be etched onto the men’s singles roll of honour tonight as Roger Federer dashed home hopes by defeating Britain’s Andy Murray in four sets to win his seventh Wimbledon title.
The Swiss has also reclaimed the No. 1 ranking from Novak Djokovic by equalling William Renshaw and Pete Sampras as the only men to win seven singles titles at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.
It wasn’t plain sailing for Federer, though, who ensured Murray became just the second man in the Open Era to lose his first four Grand Slam finals – the only other man who has had to endure that kind of disappointment is the Scot’s coach, Ivan Lendl.
Federer was second-best for most of the first set and never recovered from being broken in the first game of the match. But the now 17-time Grand Slam champion found his rhythm in the second set and regularly pushed Murray to deuce on the Brit’s serve while holding his own with ease.
The match was suspended due to rain at 1-1 in the third set and playing under the roof it was all about Federer. He pummelled Murray into submission with some wonderful groundstrokes and finally ran out a 46 75 63 64 winner in just under three-and-a-half hours.
Elsewhere, in the boys’ singles event, Canada’s Filip Peliwo finally broke his Grand Slam duck by defeating Luke Saville of Australia 75 64.
Peliwo finished runner-up in the boys’ singles in both the Australian Open and Roland Garros this year but he fought back from 2-5 down in the first set to overcome defending champion Saville and with victory claimed the No. 1 spot in the junior rankings.
Peliwo’s victory sealed a memorable tournament for Canadian juniors. Before this year’s Wimbledon, Canada had never produced a junior singles winner in either the boys or the girls’ events. With Eugenie Bouchard’s victory in the girls’ event yesterday Canadian tennis looks to be in good hands.
Speaking about his country’s sudden upsurge in results Peliwo said: “I think just the base that we’ve got there is great at the moment. We’re all working very hard to succeed, and I think that there’s a lot of talent back in Canada.
“Honestly, it’s tough to explain because you never really know why it happened at a certain moment. I’m just happy that me and [Eu]Genie got the chances to play the final and win.”
Bouchard capped a perfect week by partnering USA’s Taylor Townsend to victory in the girls’ doubles with a 64 63 win over Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Croatia’s Ana Konjuh.
The mixed doubles final, which is always the last match of The Championships, was played under the Centre Court roof as the rain continued to fall at Wimbledon, and it was the all-American pairing of Lisa Raymond and Mike Bryan who claimed the title.
After failing to serve out the match in the second set, Raymond and Bryan, seeded No. 2, composed themselves to defeat Russia’s Elena Vesnina and India’s Leander Paes 63 57 64 in just over two hours.
It was Raymond’s second mixed doubles title at Wimbledon, the first coming back in 1999 with Paes, while it was Bryan’s maiden triumph. Both players have also won the doubles titles here in the past. Review all the action on the official Wimbledon website. —– ITF/Photo: Paul Zimmer
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