Having claimed every other Grand Slam doubles together, it was only natural that Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci would wish to complete their Grand Slam collection at Wimbledon.
They did so convincingly with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in the final today, becoming only the fifth pair in history to win every Major title. Not only that, but Errani and Vinci are the first Italians to win a senior title at the All England Club in 128 editions of the tournament. “Unbelievable. I mean, no words to tell you what it is for us,” Errani said of the pair’s Grand Slam sweep.
“We were thinking about that all the day, all the morning. (It) is very special.” Experience was arguably the difference in the 56-minute win. The Italians, who are close friends, had already won 19 tour titles as a pair and were playing their 258th match together; Babos and Mladenovic, by contrast, were contesting only their third event as a team and 13th match, having reached the final of Paris earlier this year and fallen in the first round in Birmingham. The first blows were struck early by the second seeds, Errani and Vinci racing to a 3-0 lead when neither Babos nor Mladenovic could hold their opening service games. They’d surrender one of those breaks on Errani’s serve, but as Vinci imposed at the net and her partner backed up from the baseline, they soon claimed that first set in 27 minutes. Also friends since juniors and born just four days apart in May 1993, the Hungarian and French pairing had reason to be confident against their more-experienced opponents, having defeated top-seeded defending champions and recent French Open champions Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 in the third round.
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