Henri Kontinen and Heather Watson are developing a comedy double act that is winning over the fans and keeping alive their hopes of successfully defending their Wimbledon mixed doubles title.
It was showcased on Centre Court in the early evening as they battled to get past No.10 seeds Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5.
When they won the title last year it was achieved with little practice together and the same is true this time, which means hand signals behind the back telling each other where to stand after the serve have to be accompanied by vocal instructions. These are best heard when Watson is serving with Kontinen doing the hand signals. To confirm the instructions, Britain’s Watson loudly says each time, “you are there and I am over there”, which had the fans in fits of laughter.
It was no laughing matter for their opponents and Canada’s Dabrowski lost her serve at crucial points in the second and third sets to leave her partner Bopanna, of India, struggling to keep them in the match as he patrolled the net. With Kontinen having earlier lost a long match in the men’s doubles, another two hours on court in this really tested his fitness and there were more errors than normal from this brilliant doubles exponent.
His serve held up well and at one point in the final set he delivered three successive overhead smashes just to win the one point. Watson was a bundle of energy and after they lost the opening set on the tie-break, she ensured the defending champions kept putting on the pressure. They broke in the fifth game of the second set and saved two break points in the sixth on Kontinen’s normally reliable delivery and the set was won 6-4 as Watson helped out with an overhead smash, despite the Finnish right hander yelling it was his.
The final set got the crowd fully involved and Watson and Kontinen appeared to have made the key break in the seventh game, only to lose their own serve. It wasn’t until they plundered Dabrowski’s serve again, when Bopanna put a simple volley into the net, that victory was back on their rackets. This time Watson served out for the win that sets up a mouth-watering semi-final with No.2 seeds Bruno Soares and Elena Vesnina, who defeated Andre Begemann (Germany) and Nicole Melichar (USA) 7-5, 6-4.
Ten years after he won the mixed doubles title with Jelena Jankovic, of Serbia, Britain’s Jamie Murray is through to the last four of the event, this time partnership multi-titled Martina Hingis, of Switzerland. The No.1 seeds were too strong for Britain’s Ken Skupski and Jocelyn Rae, winning 6-4, 6-4 in just 64 minutes.
Murray and Hingis now play Marcelo Demoliner (Brazil) and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Spain) in the last four after they knocked out Mate Pavic (Croatia) and Lyudmyla Kichernok (Ukraine), 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
