Kichenok postpones wedding, clinches US Open doubles title with Ostapenko

No.7 seeds Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko capped off a perfect fortnight at the US Open by defeating Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-3 to win the doubles title. Kichenok and Ostapenko did not lose a set en route to their first Grand Slam title and fifth team title overall.

“I think we’re a really great team and I think it was a great two weeks,” Ostapenko said. “We didn’t expect anything and we just kept playing better and better every match and we didn’t lose a set.”

After the win, Kichenok, who is engaged to Ostapenko’s coach Stas Kumarsky, revealed the two had an appointment to get married during the second week of the US Open.

“We had an appointment to get married this Wednesday but I had the semifinals,” Kichenok told Mary Joe Fernandez during the trophy ceremony.

Kichenok and Kumarsky postponed their nuptials, and now, she and Ostapenko are US Open champions.

“When we got here to New York, my boyfriend Stas, he checked where we can do it, because we got engaged, like, more than a year ago,” Kichenok explained later. “We were figuring out all the things, where we can do that. He found a spot here and he just booked an appointment for Wednesday. Just this procedure when you sign the papers, just to do that.

“But I had to play semi-finals on Wednesday, and I said, ‘OK, maybe next time. But we’re going to do it somewhere, somehow.’”

Kichenok and Ostapenko began the year by finishing runner-up at the Australian Open, where they lost to No.2 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens. The US Open is their third title of the year, after winning Brisbane and Eastbourne. A consistent threat at the tour’s biggest events, Kichenok and Ostapenko will surge to No.1 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals after the tournament.

“I want to dedicate my wins to the people in Ukraine,” Kichenok said. “They are fighting very hard for our freedom right now and I just hope I can give them some encouragement. My heart is with them.”

Fritz targets US Open glory to end 21 years of American drought: Taylor Fritz can end 21 years of American pain on Sunday when he tackles world number one Jannik Sinner in the US Open final, insisting his level is “good enough to win”.

The 26-year-old Fritz is attempting to become his country’s first male Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick at the US Open in 2003.

He doesn’t lack confidence, believing that defeating compatriot Frances Tiafoe in a five-set semi-final on Friday, where he was second-best for large parts of the evening, was more of a challenge than facing Sinner.

“I don’t think that I’m going be put in a more stressful situation than I was against Frances,” said Fritz, the first American man in a Slam final since Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009.

“I just feel good. I have a feeling I’m going to come out and play really well and win. When I play good tennis, I think that level is good enough to win.”

World number 12 Fritz has capitalised on the huge hole left in the tournament by the shock early exits of four-time US Open champion Novak Djokovic and 2022 winner Carlos Alcaraz.

He did his part by seeing off fourth-ranked 2020 runner-up Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals after defeating eighth seed and 2022 finalist Casper Ruud in the last 16.

He has a 1-1 head-to-head record against Sinner, the first Italian man to reach the US Open final.

Fritz won their first meeting on the hard courts of Indian Wells in 2021 with Sinner gaining revenge at the same California desert venue two years later.

“I’ve always played well against Jannik. He hits the ball big. He’s like a very strong ball striker, but I feel like I always hit the ball really nice off his ball,” explained the American, who had never got past the quarter-finals of a major before this US Open.

Sinner won his maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January and has shrugged off the controversy over two failed drugs tests to reach his second Slam final of 2024.

Agencies