Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell bring a dramatic ride to the finish line in Wimbledon: In the course of the tournament, the Australians fend off eight match points in order to triumph in a thriller at the end. They are also close to defeat in the final, but this time they come back spectacularly.
Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell have won men's doubles at Wimbledon, the first Australian tennis doubles match since Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in 2000. The Australian Open finalists defeated Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic in the final 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 7 (3: 7), 4: 6, 6: 4, 7: 6 (10: 2 ) and thus prevented the Croatians, number two, from successfully defending their title.
Mektic/Pavic knocked out the two-time French Open winners Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies in the quarterfinals. They have to share a bonus of 317,700 euros, the winners collect 635,500 euros.
The fact that the Croatian combination even competed and was then able to fight so damn close to successfully defending the title for more than four hours is a great achievement in itself: left-hander Pavic broke his right wrist in the semifinals against the Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah and in the final he could only play his actually two-handed backhand with one hand.
And it almost was enough, because in the deciding set they were already in the lead with a break, at 4: 4 the reigning double world champions had two more break balls. But in the end it was the Australians who brought their great comeback story to a fitting end by pulling their heads out of the noose just before the defeat.
Ebden/Purcell are the first tennis pros ever to triumph in Wimbledon after match points against each other in several rounds. In the first round they were three times out against Andre Goransson/Robert Lindstedt, in the semifinals they had to fend off five match points against the top seeded duo Rajeev Ram/Joe Salisbury before they fought for a ticket to the final after a set deficit of 0:2 .
