Urszula Radwanska of Poland became the first girl to win the girls’ singles and doubles event in the same year since Amelie Mauresmo in 1996. She and her sister, Agnieska, who won in 2005, are also the first sisters to win the Wimbledon junior singles title.
In the doubles final, Radwanska and her Russian partner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova immediately went 2-0 down at the start of the first set before they started to seize control of the points from their hard-hitting Japanese opponents Musaki Doi and Kurumi Nara. They went 3-2 ahead, only to slip up immediately, allowing their aggressively returning opponents to break back to 3-3.
Blistering returns of serve continued to dominate the opening exchanges in the final as the girls’ serves received no respect, until Radwanska stepped up her game to hold serve in the eighth game. Doi and Nara had to hold or lose the set. Pavlyuchenkova did have the only set point opportunity on the left-handed Doi’s serve but failed to convert, leaving her the responsibility to make amends by serving out the set 6-4.
The celebrations were put on hold temporarily as in the second set Doi and Nara earned themselves another early lead, which they held on to take the set with some intelligent play, 6-2.
In the nail-biting climax to the final, the first seven points went with the server until Pavlyuchenkova capitalised on a weak serve from Doi. Radwanska earned a second consecutive mini-break, rallying from the back of the court to go 6-3 ahead. But the Japanese pair weren’t finished yet and never gave up frustrating Radwanska who lost two points on her serve. The match was back on serve to the delight of the Japanese fans in the crowd.
Radwanska made up for one of her two mini breaks by hitting the decisive shot in the next three points to give her team three Championship points. And on the second match point, Radwanska hit the winning shot for a 6-4, 2-6 (10-7) victory.
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