Strycova claims No. 1 ranking with Wimbledon doubles crown
Three days after losing in her first major semifinal in singles, Barbora Strycova won her first major title in doubles.
Strycova and Hsieh Su-wei won the women's doubles at Wimbledon on Sunday by beating Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Xu Yifan of China 6-2, 6-4 on Centre Court.
''There is no word to describe the feeling,'' said Strycova, a Czech veteran who will take over the No. 1 rankings in doubles on Monday. ''It's kind of like unreal, but in the same time it's amazing.''
The match had been scheduled for Saturday, but it was postponed a day because the men's doubles final ran long, finishing in five sets. So the women's doubles instead followed the men's singles final on Centre Court while the mixed doubles was relocated to No. 1 Court.
''We were waiting a long time,'' Strycova said of Saturday's delay. ''Yesterday was tough because we were ready, ready, then suddenly the supervisor came to us. If they just split sets, we cancel. We were just warming up. It was tough.''
Even on Sunday they had to wait. The men's singles final between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer went to a tiebreaker at 12-12 in the fifth set - the first year that rule has been in place.
''I was thinking (I'm) glad Wimbledon change the rules,'' said Hsieh, who is from Taiwan. ''Otherwise I will keep eating and I will get fat.''
The 33-year-old Strycova produced the best singles run of her career at this year's Wimbledon tournament, becoming the oldest first-time major semifinalist in the professional era. She ended up losing to Serena Williams 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday.
For Hsieh, it was her third Grand Slam doubles title. She won the 2013 Wimbledon and 2014 French Open titles with partner Peng Shuai.
Strycova and Hsieh have only played together 10 times, with nine of those partnerships coming this season. They won three titles this year, including on grass in Birmingham before Wimbledon started, but lost in the third round at the French Open.
''We definitely talked about playing together because we have a good chance to play the Masters,'' Strycova said. ''We will play together until the end of the year, and then we sit down and we will see how it goes, how we feel.''