Playing in the last match of her junior career, Daria Snigur was determined to finish on a high note. The 17-year-old from Ukraine couldn’t have done so more emphatically, defeating Alexa Noel 6-4, 6-4 to be crowned the 2019 Wimbledon girls’ champion.
“I can't believe it. It was my dream,” said Snigur. “It's very good for me. I worked hard every day for this trophy. It's incredible.”
It caps a remarkable fortnight for the hard-working teenager: after lifting the trophy in Roehampton last week, it was her 12th straight win.
Snigur dropped just one set at The Championships and stunned the No.1 seed and recent Roland-Garros runner-up, Emma Navarro, 6-3, 6-0 in the semi-finals. Having declared that she “must keep calm and concentrate”, Snigur remained true to her intentions.
After a nervous beginning on No.1 court, the unorthodox Ukrainian utilised the best of an unrelenting will and clever backhand to recover from a 1-4 deficit. She claimed the last five games to secure the first set in 46 minutes.
There were signs of recovery from Noel, the No.10 seed, who was also runner-up to Snigur in Roehampton. With a break of serve in Snigur’s opening service game she disrupted her opponent's rhythm with her clever variety to claim a 3-0 advantage.
But in a Wimbledon final Snigur was determined to find solutions. “I know her game because we played in Roehampton,” she said of Noel. “It's a very hard game for me because I don't like when she play all [the] time slices.”
Securing victory after one hour and 22 minutes with a backhand winner, Snigur showed the benefit of increased aggression. “I tried to push the ball,” she said. “I don't want to play slice on slice. I must push the ball.”
Noel will learn from her experience. “It was great. I was just happy I could be in that position,” said the American, noting that Snigur’s unusual style contains some surprising weapons.
“She's a very good player. She is super-deceiving and she loves her backhand,” Noel said. “She can hit her backhand from anywhere in the court and she was running to the deuce side to get backhands.
"She's just a different kind of player. It's not a normal thing to play against. It's hard to face. She's good.”
Snigur joins some illustrious names to win both Roehampton and the Wimbledon girls’ title, including Amelie Mauresmo, Eugenie Bouchard, Belinda Bencic, Jelena Ostapenko and Claire Liu.
She also adds to the growing power of Ukrainian players – with four women currently inside the world's top 100 – and explains that she most identifies with the hard-hitting Dayana Yastremska, who was runner-up in the Wimbledon girls’ event three years ago.
Snigur was the fifth from her nation to reach a junior girls’ final but only the second, after Kateryna Bondarenko in 2004, to win the title.
She can hit her backhand from anywhere in the court and she was running to the deuce side to get backhands
She is coached by countrywoman Larisa Savchenko, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1994. She describes the former world No.14 as a “beautiful coach, the best in my career” and almost certainly inherited Savchenko’s love for grass courts. “It's a very fast surface,” Snigur said. “I love when points are fast.”
With her junior career now completed on the highest possible note, Snigur hopes to take the confidence of a Wimbledon title into professional events.
First, however, there’s the Champions’ Dinner to attend and, with that, the 17-year-old gives the one reminder she’s still a teenager. “I’m nervous,” she admitted. “I'm nervous before match, during the match, after the match. I'm nervous [the] whole time.”
Still, with a Wimbledon trophy now secured, those nerves are clearly not affecting her tennis.