Before Wimbledon 2025, Katerina Siniakova’s bulging trophy cabinet included a career Grand Slam in women’s doubles, amounting to 10 such titles in all. But never until now has the Czech come close to winning a mixed crown on Slam territory.
An Olympic gold medal, yes, in Paris last year with Tomas Machac. But in Slams, never mind reaching a final, she had not progressed beyond the round of 16.
Her playing partner Sem Verbeek, whose first Slam final this was, declared on Instagram ahead of the mixed showdown here: “Let’s make it a Thursday to remember forever.”
In tandem, the scratch pair fulfilled his pledge and the doubles maven filled the only blank in her professional record. They combined to see off Joe Salisbury and Luisa Stefani 7-6(3), 7-6(3).
Having achieved the most joyful outcome on his debut Centre Court appearance, Dutch lefty Verbeek led the crowd in a possible first on the great stage, singing ‘happy birthday’ to his father Frank in his player box. It was difficult to tell which of them was the more emotional.
As for Siniakova, she could not stop smiling. Grand Slam victory never gets old.
“It’s very special,” she said, gazing at her trophy. “It means a lot, and we have so much fun on the court. Sem, thank you for playing with me. The atmosphere on Centre Court is always amazing and I’m so happy I could be here again.”
Verbeek gazed at her with understandable admiration.
“It’s been an honour and a pleasure to compete next to such a great doubles legend,” he told her. “Thanks for making this a Thursday I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
For Salisbury, who went to school barely a mile from the All England Club, it means his search goes on for a first Wimbledon title to accompany his six other Grand Slam wins across three venues.
This was the second time he has finished runner-up in the mixed here, after his 2021 final alongside Harriet Dart. His record-breaking partnership with Rajeev Ram reached three semis here, but went no further.
For Stefani, it was the second day in a row that she had faced Siniakova across the net and come off second best. On Wednesday, the Brazilian and Timea Babos went out of the women’s doubles, at the hands of defending champions Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.
Salisbury and Stefani had not dropped a set on their progress through the draw, although five of their eight previous sets had gone to the breaker. But here, a tight first set reached its conclusion when Siniakova and Verbeek took control of the tie-break comfortably.
With her serve broken early in the second set, Stefani had to summon the trainer as a lower back problem required a medical timeout. She and Salisbury levelled through an improbable Siniakova forehand slip, but once again in the tie-break their opponents edged away.
Through his disappointment, Salisbury thanked Stefani “for texting me two days before the sign-in – it’s been an absolute pleasure to play with you and hopefully we can again”.
Stefani, struggling with tears, returned the compliments. “We live for these moments,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard in these moments – we want to do more. Then we step back and see how far we’ve come. My first time on Centre Court was a huge honour.”
But the day belonged to Siniakova and Verbeek… and Frank. Happy birthday, sir.