Casey Dellacqua and Ash Barty have booked their spot in the women’s invitational doubles final at Wimbledon 2024.
London, Great Britain, 14 July 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Casey Dellacqua and Ash Barty are having a lot of fun being back on court together at Wimbledon 2024 – and they’ve returned to their winning ways too.
Eleven years after competing in their first Wimbledon final, they have advanced to another final at the All England Club in the women’s invitational doubles competition.
The Aussie duo went unbeaten across the round-robin stage of the competition, securing their final spot with a 6-4 6-2 victory today against Brit Johanna Konta and American Coco Vandeweghe.
This sets up a showdown with two-time defending champions Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis, who edged out Sam Stosur and Cara Black 7-5 7-5 in their final round-robin match.
“I’m excited that she’s back,” Clijsters said of Barty, who is 13 years her junior. “I never got to play against her. I’ve only practised against her, so it’s exciting to have her playing on the legends tour.
“A few years ago I was the youngest legend out there, but definitely not anymore,” she added with a laugh.
The 41-year-old Clijsters, a former world No.1 in singles and doubles, staged two professional comebacks in her career. She believes Barty could be capable of doing the same, if she wanted to.
“Who knows? Last year we where seeing Caroline Wozniacki practice between our legends matches and we were all like ‘What are you doing? Why are you practising this much?’” Clijsters said.
“There’s definitely a part of me that hopes that she (Barty) kind of gets triggered by the challenge and the adventure that it is to comeback on tour with a family.”
Australian greats Lleyton Hewitt (partnering South African Kevin Anderson) and Mark Woodforde (partnering Slovak Dominika Cibulkova) have also advanced to finals in their respective invitational doubles events.
Aussies in action – Wimbledon
RESULTS
Women’s invitational doubles, round-robin
Ash Barty (AUS)/Casey Dellacqua (AUS) d Johanna Konta (GBR)/Coco Vandeweghe (USA) 6-4 6-2
Martina Hingis (SUI)/Kim Clijsters (BEL) d Sam Stosur (AUS)/Cara Black (ZIM) 7-5 7-5
Men’s invitational doubles, round-robin
Jamie Delgado (GBR)/Sebastian Grosjean (FRA) d Mark Philippoussis (AUS)/Tommy Haas (GER) 3-3 ret.
Mixed invitational doubles, round-robin
Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)/Barbara Schett (AUT) d Todd Woodbridge…
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