Pohankova Claims Wimbledon Girls Title; Wazny and Paldanius Save Match Points for Second Consecutive Junior Slam Boys Doubles Championship; Glasspool and Cash Capture First Major in Men's Doubles

©Colette Lewis 2025--

Wimbledon--

Unseeded Mia Pohankova rode the rhythmic clapping of her Slovakian supporters to a decisive victory in the final of the Wimbledon Junior Championships, beating No. 6 seed Julieta Pareja of the United States 6-3, 6-1 Saturday afternoon on the All England Lawn Tennis Club's Court One.

Pohankova admitted to some butterflies as she walked out into the brilliant sunshine of one of the most legendary courts in tennis.

"When I step on the court and saw the crowd, like stadium is so big," said the 16-year-old from Bratislava. "I was a little bit nervous, first three games. I just trying to play, and trying to do my best, like I did."

Down 3-1, Pohankova found her form, winning the next five games, as Pareja's unforced errors and ineffective serving kept the American from generating any momentum.

Prior to the start of nearly every point, Pohankova's several dozen family and friends, distributed among the players box and the player guest seating, began to clap. And while the majority in the crowd were neutral, some of the six to eight thousand in attendance joined in.

"I have a lot of friends from my country," said Pohankova, who reached the semifinals of the Australian Open Junior Championships this year. "They are here this morning, come to watch me and support me and I really appreciate it. I like big courts. Many people there support us and I like it. Unbelievable atmosphere, you know."

Their encouragement continued as Pohankova extended her consecutive games winning streak to eight, breaking Pareja in her first two service games for a 3-0 lead in the second set. But Pareja got a break back to make it 3-1, only to lose her next service game with another errant forehand at 30-40.

"I knew that I could get back," said Pareja, a 16-year-old from Carlsbad California, who had her 11-match winning streak in her first two tournaments on grass, snapped. "But I don't think my first serve percentage was good. I did a couple of double faults when I didn't need them, and it was tough to hold, starting from a second serve."

Pohankova sensed that her 3-0 lead was enough, and losing her serve in that fourth game did not affect the positive mindset she had adopted. 

"I was more confident," said Pohankova, who is coached by Robert Gazparetz at the National Tennis Center in Bratislava. "When I led 3-0 second set, I feel like this is my game, my comfort zone."

After holding at love for 5-1 with some confident serving, Pohankova swung freely in Pareja's service game, and when she put away a backhand to get to match point, the clapping neared its peak. It ended there, with Pohankova forcing a backhand error from Pareja to claim the second straight Wimbledon girls title for a Slovakian.

"It is incredible moment because Renáta(Jamrichova) won last year, two Slovak girls won two years," Pohankova said. "Unbelievable for Slovakia tennis."

But as elated as Pohankova appeared in her post-match press conference, she also revealed a higher ambition.

"I need to win like real Wimbledon, not juniors," Pohankova said. "I think this is just the start."

Pareja has another opportunity for a junior slam title Sunday, when she and Thea Frodin face Kristina Penickova and Czech Vendula Valdmannov in the girls doubles final.

"I wanted to win today, but it's nice to be able to play doubles as well, in the final, not a lot of people get to play both,"  said Pareja, who has been in Europe since May and is eager to return home, where she'll be competing in the USTA Girls 18s National Championships in San Diego next month. "I'm happy to play with Thea, she's amazing, so I'm happy to play with her and see how we can do."

Ronit Karki will face Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria in the boys singles championship match on Court One after the men's Wheelchair final, which begins at 11 am.

Although the Court One audience increased after the Wimbledon women's final wrapped up quickly, with Iga Swiatek beating Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0, it paled in comparison to the nearly 10,000 fans who watched home hope Oliver Bonding fall one point short in the boys doubles final.

Bonding and Jagger Leach, the No. 8 seeds, had taken the first set from Roland Garros champions Oskari Paldanius of Finland and Alan Wazny of Poland 7-5, and led 6-4 in the second set tiebreaker, with a second serve coming from Wazny, who had double faulted on set point in the opening set. But Wazny hit a second serve ace to save it, and Wazny and Paldanius took next three points to force a match tiebreaker to decide the championship.

"It was his idea," said Wazny, crediting Paldanius with the decision to go big on the second serve. "He said, 'go wide, and I cross,' and I was 'what?, what?'. But it was a good call. And I also felt like, ok, we have nothing to lose, just go for it, and it went in."

Leach still had a match point on his serve, and made the first, but what Wazny called a "full power" return put Leach and Bonding on defense, with Bonding's backhand volley going long.

The match tiebreaker featured three lob winners, one by Leach and two by Paldanius, with that final one giving Paldanius and Wazny a 9-5 lead and then a 5-7, 7-6(6), 10-5 victory.

"We talked before the match with our coaches that they like to come really close to the net and are really good with the volleys," said Paldanius. "So if I see them coming forward, I'll play a lob. Usually, when you're playing a final there's some nerves, you're a bit scared, maybe you don't have the feel. But today I felt pretty good and at 5-8, I played an unbelievable lob, and after the slow bounce, I said I was going to add so much spin that the ball is not going out."

Although their experience at Roland Garros no doubt helped them, the singular atmosphere on Court One was daunting, but ultimately rewarding.

"Winning Roland Garros I would say was the best moment of my life," Paldanius said. "Now, winning a match when we saved match points and played on Court One with a full crowd, supporting each other, what a level in the match, it's an even better feeling."

Paldanius and Wazny are planning to go for a third straight junior slam title in September in New York.

The Wimbledon 14 and Under tournament semifinals and consolation matches were played Saturday, with all three Americans competing in the latter advancing to a fourth day of matches.

The boys final Sunday will feature Rafael Pagonis of Greece and Moritz Freitag of Austria, with Pagonis defeating Nikita Berdin of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 and Freitag beating Mario Vukovic of France 6-2, 6-4.

Tristan Ascenzo defeated Fu Wang Choi of Hong Kong 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 to reach the final round of the Group 1 consolation playoffs against Yu Ting Wu of China.

Sofia Bielinska of Ukraine and Sakino Miyazawa will meet for the girls final Sunday, with Bielinska beating Yeri Hong of Korea 6-3, 2-6, 10-3 and Miyazawa defeating Liv Zingg of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4.

Emery Combs, who had beaten Bielinska in the round robin group stage yesterday, but lost out in the calculations used to advance one player from each group, defeated Laura Masarykova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-2. Carol Shao beat Milica Milojevic of Great Britain 6-2, 6-0 and will play Combs tomorrow in the Group 1 consolation final.

All boys results are here; the girls results are here.

Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) and Julian Cash(Mississippi State, Oklahoma State) of Great Britain claimed the men's doubles title, their first major, beating Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia and David Pel of the Netherlands 6-2, 7-6(3) for their third grass court title this summer. They are the first all-British pair to win the Wimbledon title in 89 years. 

Glasspool joins a very select list of players who have won a men's doubles major and an NCAA men's doubles title. Glasspool, who won the title in 2015 with Soren Hess-Olesen, joins Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M), Robert Farah(USC), Rajeev Ram(Illinois), Bob and Mike Bryan(Stanford), Mahesh Bhuphati(Ole Miss) and Rick Leach(USC) in achieving that double.

For more on the men's doubles final, see this article from the Wimbledon website.