Alexandrova wins first triple-tiebreak Wimbledon match in Open Era

LONDON, England -- Ekaterina Alexandrova
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
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) July 7, 2023View Profile - 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
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
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
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
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
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
2019 Luxembourg R1, Denisa Satralova def. Mandy Minella 6-7(7), 7-6(5), 7-6(6)
2020 Lyon SF, Sofia Kenin
2021 Birmingham R1, Ajla Tomljanovic
2021 Gdynia QF, Kristina Kucova def. Ekaterine Gorgodze
2021 US Open R1, Rebeka Masarova
2021 Luxembourg R1, Greet Minnen
2022 Strasbourg F, Angelique Kerber def. Kaja Juvan 7-6(5), 6-7(0), 7-6(5)
2023 Austin R1, Peyton Stearns
2023 Miami R1, Camila Giorgi def. Kaia Kanepi 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(4)
2023 Wimbledon R2, Ekaterina Alexandrova