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Mixed doubles title for Po at Wimbledon
by John Tawa
Palos Verdes native Kimberly Po, who now makes her home in Hermosa Beach, teamed with American Donald Johnson Sunday to win the mixed doubles crown at Wimbledon. The eighth seeds defeated Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Kim Clijsters of Belgium 6-3, 7-6(7-3).
It was the first Grand Slam title for both Po, 28, and Johnson, despite a few recent close calls. The pair lost in the finals of the 1999 U.S. Open and had advanced to the quarterfinals of both the Australian and French Open this year.
"It’s very exciting to finally win one," Po said. "The thing we like is that we played happy. We didn’t do that at the U.S. Open and that was very disappointing to lose that final in front of our families."
At Wimbledon, Po and Johnson almost didn’t make it out of the first round, winning the decisive set 9-7, but they took the momentum of that win with them all the way to the finals.
In the title match, Po-Johnson used a break of Clijsters in the seventh game to take the first set 6-3. The second set was close all the way, until Clijsters was broken again in the 11th game to give the Americans a 6-5 lead and Po the chance to serve for the match. But Po couldn’t get the job done, losing her serve to send the second set to a tiebreaker.
Po atoned, however, hitting a key winner off of Clijsters serve to give the Americans a 3-1 lead in the tiebreaker the American team eventually won 7-3. ER