LONDON, England -- Ekaterina Alexandrova's 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 7-6[7] victory over Madison Brengle didn't just put the No.21 seed into the third round of Wimbledon for the first time, but into the history books as well.
The result was the first women's singles match at Wimbledon in the Open Era that required three tiebreaks to decide. Such a score line has only been possible at SW19 since 2019, when a traditional first-to-seven tiebreak was instituted at 12-12 in the final set rather than the set being played out indefinitely. Since 2022, the final set has been decided by a first-to-10 match tiebreak played at 6-6.
1 - Ekaterina Alexandrova - Madison Brengle is the first 3-tie breaks Women's Singles match in Wimbledon in the Open Era and the 4th in a Major (after Graf-Shriver US 1985, Fernandez-Meskhi US 1991 and Masarova-Bogdan US 2021). Show.#Wimbledon | @Wimbledon @WTA @WTA_insider
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) July 7, 2023
Alexandrova trailed 2-0 in the second set and 3-1 in the third set, and was two points from defeat both in the second-set tiebreak and then when Brengle served for the match at 6-5 in the third set. She had held her first three match points on Brengle's serve at 5-4 in the third set, but eventually converted her fifth after 2 hours and 49 minutes.
A remarkable twist to Alexandrova's history-making stat is that she has previously struggled in such matches. Before June this year, her record in third-set tiebreaks at tour level was 1-16, with her sole win coming 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(7) over No.216-ranked wild card Elvina Kalieva in the first round of Indian Wells 2022.
Last month, Alexandrova snapped that streak in style, defending her 's-Hertogenbosch title 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) in the final against Veronika Kudermetova. Now, she has won consecutive deciding tiebreaks for the first time in her career at tour level and nine out of 10 grass-court matches so far this year.
This result is only the fourth triple-tiebreak women's singles match at Grand Slams in the Open Era. The other three all came at the US Open, where a tiebreak has been used to decide the final set since 1970:
--Stefanie Graf's 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(4) def. Pam Shriver in 1985 quarterfinals
--Gigi Fernandez's 7-6(1), 6-7(3), 7-6(2) def. Leila Meskhi in the 1991 third round
--Rebeka Masarova's 6-7(9), 7-6(2), 7-6(9) def. Ana Bogdan in the 2021 first round
In the past 10 years, there have been 16 tour-level triple-tiebreak matches:
2014 Stuttgart R1, Maria Sharapova def. Lucie Safarova 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-6(2)
2014 Québec City R2, Shelby Rogers def. Asia Muhammad 6-7(5), 7-6(2), 7-6(5)
2016 Québec City R1, Sachia Vickery def. Patricia Maria Tig 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 7-6(7)
2017 Brisbane R1, Roberta Vinci def. Kateryna Volodko 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(5)
2017 Wuhan R1, Peng Shuai def. Petra Kvitova 7-6(7), 6-7(5), 7-6(3)
2018 Strasbourg F, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Dominika Cibulkova 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 7-6(6)
2019 Luxembourg R1, Denisa Satralova def. Mandy Minella 6-7(7), 7-6(5), 7-6(6)
2020 Lyon SF, Sofia Kenin def. Alison Van Uytvanck 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(2)
2021 Birmingham R1, Ajla Tomljanovic def. Elise Mertens 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-6(4)
2021 Gdynia QF, Kristina Kucova def. Ekaterine Gorgodze 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 7-6(3)
2021 US Open R1, Rebeka Masarova def. Ana Bogdan 6-7(9), 7-6(2), 7-6(9)
2021 Luxembourg R1, Greet Minnen def. Nuria Parrizas Diaz 7-6(4), 6-7(1), 7-6(2)
2022 Strasbourg F, Angelique Kerber def. Kaja Juvan 7-6(5), 6-7(0), 7-6(5)
2023 Austin R1, Peyton Stearns def. Katie Boulter 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(5)
2023 Miami R1, Camila Giorgi def. Kaia Kanepi 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(4)
2023 Wimbledon R2, Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Madison Brengle 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 7-6[7]
