Ostapenko and Arevalo Win Dramatic Thriller in Wimbledon Mixed Doubles First Round
Latvia's Alona Ostapenko and El Salvador's Marcelo Arevalo came from behind to win a dramatic mixed doubles first-round match at Wimbledon on Saturday.
The second-seeded duo of Alona Ostapenko (Latvia) and Marcelo Arevalo (El Salvador) overcame a tough challenge from Vera Zvonareva (Russia) and Albano Olivetti (France) in the first round of the Wimbledon mixed doubles tournament on Saturday. The match ended 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (10) in favor of Ostapenko and Arevalo.
The pair started strong, winning the first set 6-2 by breaking their opponents' serves in the fourth and eighth games. The second set was closely contested, with both teams holding serve until a tiebreak. Ostapenko and Arevalo had a match point in the 12th game but couldn't convert, eventually losing the tiebreak 4-7.
In the deciding set, Zvonareva and Olivetti raced to a 4-1 lead, but Ostapenko and Arevalo showed resilience, leveling at 4-4. The set again went to a tiebreak, where the Latvian-Salvadoran pair dominated, never trailing and winning 10-7 to secure a spot in the second round.
In the next round, Ostapenko and Arevalo will face Croatia's Darija Jurak-Šreiber (42) and Argentina's Andres Molteni (38), who defeated China's Guo Hanyu and Austria's Lukas Miedler 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 in their first-round match.
Ostapenko has a history of success in mixed doubles at Wimbledon, having reached the final in 2019 with Sweden's Robert Lindstedt.
Earlier in the tournament, Ostapenko, ranked 31st in singles, lost to world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 4-6, 4-6 in the third round, earning 130 singles ranking points. In women's doubles, she and American Sofia Kenin were defeated in the second round on Saturday, also earning 130 points.
Wimbledon is the third Grand Slam of the season, played on grass courts.
