In a fortnight of thrilling encounters in both the men's and women's singles, several players proved that there is a new generation of tennis stars hungry for titles.
Hands down, the breakthrough run of this year’s Championships belonged to the beaming Muguruza. Having dealt Serena Williams her heaviest defeat in a Grand Slam event at last year’s French Open, the 21-year-old was already being touted as a serious contender among Generation Next. In reaching her first Grand Slam final on the grass the Venezuelan-born Spaniard has now well and truly announced herself.
Three times she toughed out three-setters – against former semi-finalists Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Angelique Kerber and 2012 finalist Agnieszka Radwanska – while also taking down seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Timea Bacsinszky en route.
Despite losing the final in straight sets, her grit and aggression were on full display in the dying stages of the match, breaking twice as Williams attempted to serve it out. She became the first Spanish woman since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1996 to reach a Wimbledon final and will now make her top-10 debut. Genie who?
Last year it was another pair from Canada making waves at SW19 when Milos Raonic reached his first Grand Slam semi-final and Genie Bouchard powered through to her first major final before being walloped by Petra Kvitova. Both finished the year as top tenners. Always in the shadow of his monster-serving countryman the 25-year-old Pospisil, the son of Czech migrants made the most of a huge opening in the draw, when No.7 seed David Ferrer withdrew and two-time champion Rafael Nadal was bundled out in the second round.
Despite falling to Andy Murray in straight sets in the quarter-finals it marked Pospisil’s best run at a slam and continued a love of the green turf having won the men’s doubles here last year with Jack Sock.
Colleen, or as she prefers to be known, CoCo, Vandeweghe was not the American name anyone would have put money on seeing in the quarter-final line-up coming into this year’s Championships. The 23-year-old world No.47 always had the booming serve to do damage on the grass – her 306 aces last year was the third most on tour – but until the past fortnight, she had never made it beyond the third round at a Slam. She swiped aside seeded Czechs Karolina Pliskova and Lucie Safarova either side of thrashing former US Open champion Sam Stosur.
In her maiden Grand Slam quarter-final she saved second-set match points against former champion Maria Sharapova before succumbing in three. With another Williams Slam triumph and compatriot Madison Keys riding a relatively soft draw into the quarters, it is the best the American ladies' Wimbledon stock had looked in years.
A bout of mononucleosis sidelined the Ukrainian-born American late last year forcing him to plug away on the Challenger Tour on a steady road back to the verge of the top 100. He emerged with a wild card into the Wimbledon Main Draw with a 9-1 record on the grass, including the Ilkey Challenger title. Ranked No.105 coming into the Championships, the 22-year-old counted five-set comebacks against South Americans No.28 seed Pablo Cuevas and Santiago Giraldo among his wins before Croatian No.9 seed Marin Cilic pulled him up in four sets in the fourth round.
Impressive for Kudla, but worryingly for US men’s tennis, he was the first – and only – American man to reach the fourth round since 2012.
The 23-year-old gave the Brits a severe dose of sweaty palms but ultimately an often too familiar feeling when she fell agonisingly short against eventual champion Serena Williams 7-5 in the deciding set of their third-round tussle. Backed by a raucous home crowd on Centre Court Watson played out of her skin and had an out-of-sorts Williams on the ropes when she served for the match and was within two points of the finish line.
The world No.1 would only drop one more set – to Victoria Azarenka – on her way to the title and admitted she didn’t think she was going to pull through against ‘Hev’. While Guernsey’s girl had reached the third round in her home Slam three years ago, this was easily her best result. She saved match points to upset No.32 seed Caroline Garcia in the first round and made surprisingly light work of Slovakian former top-tenner Daniela Hantuchova before taking it to Williams.
