In the early morning of July 9th, Beijing time, Jinhua Dumiao Zhang Shuai ushered in a major breakthrough at Wimbledon . She partnered with Mertens to defeat Collins/Clough 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. The Cheek combination reached the Wimbledon women's doubles final for the first time in their career, and it was also Zhang Shuai's third Grand Slam women's doubles final.
Zhang Shuai/Mertens, as the top seeds of this year's Wimbledon women's doubles, defeated Minnion/Bondal, Golubic/Osorio, and No. 15 seeds Kichenok/Oscar without losing a set in the first four rounds. The four pairs of Lalu and No. 7 seeds Guarachi/Copachi reached the semifinals. Although the two played both singles and doubles, they performed well in this competition. Zhang Shuai entered the top 32 singles and Mertens entered the top 16. After being eliminated in singles, the two could focus on doubles.
In today’s semi-finals, Zhang Shuai/Mertens faced the combination of Collins/Kravchik. Zhang Shuai/Mertens had a certain advantage as the top seeds. Collins had entered the women’s doubles quarterfinals here three years ago. Krafcik won the French Open women's doubles runner-up once and the US Open women's doubles semi-finals once. In the four rounds, Collins/Kravcik eliminated strong teams such as No. 3 seeds Dabrowski/Wolmos, and Zhang Shuai/Mertens needed to be careful in the semifinals.
In the first set, Zhang Shuai/Mertens cooperated tacitly and won four games in a row, giving their opponents a powerful start. Then both sides maintained serve, with Zhang Shuai/Mertens taking the lead 6-2. In the second set, the two sides exchanged a serve and tied at 3-3. At the end of the game, Collins/Kravcik attacked fiercely, winning three consecutive games to equalize the total score 6-3. In the final set, both sides played more cautiously and held serve to tie 3-3. At the last moment, Zhang Shuai/Mertens seized the first break point in the set and successfully broke serve. When it came time to serve to win the game, Zhang Shuai/Mertens successfully cashed in on the first match point, setting the score at 6-3. Zhang Shuai/Mertens defeated Collins/Kravcik 2-1 in 1 hour and 46 minutes. Zhang Shuai entered the Wimbledon women's doubles final for the first time and Mertens for the second time.
Zhang Shuai has reached the Grand Slam women's doubles finals twice before, both with Stosur and , and Mertens has reached the Grand Slam women's doubles finals three times and won the championship, including last year's win with Hsieh Su-wei and . Net women's doubles champion. Zhang Shuai/Mertens' opponent in the final will be No. 2 seed Klejcikova/Siniakova. Can Zhang Shuai win Wimbledon again for China Golden Flower after Zheng Jie / Yan Zi and Beibei? Let’s wait and see for the women’s doubles champion.
