Seventeen-year-old Ukrainian Daria Snigur won the Wimbledon junior girls’ title in Wimbledon, England, on July 13, defeating Alexa Noel of the U. S. A. 6-4, 6-4. Their match was played in the second-largest stadium at the All England Club, No. 1 Court. This was a rematch for the two finalists from a week prior when Snigur beat Noel in the final of a tournament in Roehampton, England, by a score of 6-1, 6-2.
The Wimbledon victory was Snigur’s first major title and fourth overall singles title. She is the second Ukrainian junior champion at Wimbledon after Kateryna Bondarenko in 2004. Snigur is the fourth Ukrainian to win a junior Grand Slam singles title overall, joining Bondarenko, Elina Svitolina (2010 French Open) and Marta Kostyuk (2017 Australian Open).
The unseeded Snigur bested three seeds on her way to saying good-bye to the junior ranks in style. Her run through the tournament included victories over 11th seed Latvian Kamilla Bartone (6-1, 6-4), Great Britain’s Erin Richardson (6-0, 6-1), American Robin Montgomery (6-7, 6-1, 6-2), Russia’s Polina Kudermetova (6-2, 6-4) and No. 1 seed American Emma Navarro (6-3, 6-0) before beating the 10th seeded Noel in the final.
“I can’t believe it. It was my dream. It’s very good for me. I worked very hard every day for this trophy. It’s incredible,” Snigur said in a post-finals media session.
“I finish my junior career here (with) very good feelings. It’s very good for me, for my career, I think because I won 15, 25K (ITF Pro Circuit) woman’s tournaments. I want to win a Grand Slam, of course. It was my dream.”
Snigur rallied from big deficits in both sets of the final, trailing Noel, who effectively utilized variation from the baseline early in the match. Down 4-1 in the first set and 3-0 in the second set, Snigur’s flat hitting began hitting the mark late in each set, allowing her to win five straight games to win the initial set and six of the last seven in the second set to win the match.
The young Kyiv native admitted to being nervous before the finals match, during the match and even after the match. Basically, she was nervous the entire time with celebrated venue and huge crowd causing much of the nerves.
When it was all over, Snigur left the media session exhausted and ready to unwind.
“I am tired now, but I can relax,” were her parting words.
Snigur started playing the sport of tennis at age 7 and is coached by Larisa Savchenko of the International Tennis Academy in Kyiv.
Singur was a junior semifinalist at the 2019 Australian Open and a junior quarterfinalist at the 2019 French Open; she will play at the U.S. Open 2019 in New York.
Notable performances
In women’s singles, Elina Svitolina won 7-5, 6-4 against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinal and lost 1-6, 3-6 in the semifinal against Simona Halep of Romania (making Svitolina the first Ukrainian tennis player to reach the semifinal round at Wimbledon). Svitolina won 6-4, 6-2 against Petra Martic of Croatia in the fourth round. In the second round, Svitolina won 7-5, 5-6 (1-0) after Margarita Gasparyan of Russia retired and won 6-3, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 against Maria Sakkari of Greece in the third round. Dayana Yastremska was eliminated in the fourth round after her 4-6, 6-1, 2-6 loss against Shuai Zhang of China.
In women’s doubles, Nadiia Kichenok and Abigail Spears of the U.S.A. lost 2-6, 3-6 against Nicole Melichar of the U.S.A. and Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic in the third round.
In mixed doubles, Nadia Kichenok and Aisam-ul-Haq Quershi of Pakistan lost 6-7 (5-7), 4-6 against Peshke and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands in the third round.
In the junior boys’ singles, Illya Beloborodko won the third round 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 against Nicolas Alvarez Varona of Spain and lost the quarterfinal 4-6, 4-6 against Harold Mayot of France.