By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON (Reuters) -Fifth seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool capped their dream summer with the Wimbledon crown and first Grand Slam title as a pair when the British team downed Rinky Hijikata and David Pel 6-2 7-6(3) in the men’s doubles final on Saturday.
Queen’s Club and Eastbourne champions Cash and Glasspool became the first all-British pairing to win the All England Club trophy since 1936, when Pat Hughes and Raymond Tuckey defeated their compatriots Charles Hare and Frank Wilde in the final.
“When you say it, it sounds incredible,” said Glasspool.
“We’ve had a Brit win it last year (Henry Patten), the year before that (Neal Skupski) so I didn’t think too much of it, but now we needed to give you two so we did our best.”
The local favourites shot out of the blocks after an early break thanks to a poor service game from Pel and raced through the opening set with minimum fuss, leaving fans buzzing on a sun-drenched Centre Court.
The Australian-Dutch duo of Hijikata and Pel saved a break point at the start of the second set and applied pressure in the fourth game but their opponents were equal to the task and took a step towards the title when they went 4-2 up.
Hijikata and Pel, who entered the tournament as alternates and survived match points in their first two rounds, drew level after eight games before Cash and Glasspool moved up a gear in the tiebreak to prevail and spark huge celebrations.
“We’ve played a crazy amount of tennis on the grass, every match we possibly could,” said Cash.
“So a lot of people were talking, coming into this event. There was a lot of pressure on our shoulders. And the fact we’ve been able to do what everyone was talking about is surreal.”
The runners-up cut cheerful figures despite the defeat.
“We didn’t even meet before the tournament,” the 34-year-old Pel said. “I mean, it was our first time speaking on the day the tournament started.”
Hijikata, who won the 2023 Australian Open title with Jason Kubler, called his All England Club adventure a “crazy ride”.
“It’s been so much fun playing with David,” Hijikata said.
“He’s brought such a great energy on the court. He’s made it very easy for me out there. It’s a dream come true to be playing on Centre Court. A bit shattered, but it was a lot of fun.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London; Editing by Clare Fallon)
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