Guo, Mladenovic capture first Grand Slam crown as partners at Wimbledon

Facing the No. 2 seeds who entered on an 18-set winning streak, Guo Hanyu and Kristina Mladenovic rose to the occasion Sunday, defeating Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani 6-3, 7-5 in 1 hour and 32 minutes to win the Wimbledon women's doubles title.

Making her major final debut, Guo claimed her first Grand Slam trophy. Mladenovic a former doubles World No. 1, earned her seventh major title in women's doubles and 10th overall, including three mixed doubles crowns. It's her first Grand Slam triumph since winning Roland Garros in 2022.

It is the pair's second title of 2026, following their victory in their team debut in Auckland in January. It also marks the first Wimbledon crown for both players in the discipline.

"Hanyu said that she's lucky that I picked her, but I would like to thank her for believing in me and wanting to play with me because I was the one who asked her to play with me at the beginning of the season," Mladenovic said during the trophy presentation. "When I was coming back, I had no ranking. I had a tough injury last year, and she didn't hesitate at all. And I'm very proud to be standing here with her."

Season of highs continues for Guo and Mladenovic

It has been a fruitful season for Mladenovic in her return. In addition to her two titles with Guo, which bring her career total to 31 WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz doubles titles, she reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final with countryman Manuel Guinard and won a WTA 125 title in Oeiras with Veronika Erjavec.

Following their Wimbledon triumph, Mladenovic is projected to rise to No. 13 in the PIF WTA Doubles Rankings, while Guo is set to achieve a new career-high ranking of World No. 9, marking her Top 10 debut. The pair will be fourth in the Race to Indian Wells on Monday.

Guo's seventh career title is her first above the WTA 500 level, and she now has won multiple titles in a season for the third straight year. She has also made strides in singles, reaching her first WTA 125 final in Midland in February and finishing runner-up at the W50 in Maanshan en route to a career-best ranking of No. 156.

"Another person I want to thank is Alan (Ma)," Guo said. "He helped me to see lots of possibilities in my career and always helped me, giving me advice when I didn't know what to do. So thank you so much. I will keep trying and keep building. Let's see what's going to happen next."

A title march to remember

It will go down as a memorable run to the championship for Guo and Mladenovic, who knocked off No. 1 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seeds Dabrowski and Stefani in the final. The cherry on top? Both wins came in straight sets.

The pair of victories sum up what was a mostly straightforward path to the title for the No. 10 seeds, who dropped just one set in six matches. That came in the third round, where they lost the opener to Anastasia Detiuc and Irina Khromacheva and had to survive a second-set tiebreak before pulling out the win in the decider.

The moment encapsulated the high level of play they produced throughout the tournament, particularly in pressure situations, as they won all three tiebreaks they contested on their march to the title.

On Sunday, no tiebreaks were needed. Guo and Mladenovic won the first five games of the match and withstood a late rally to take the opening set. In the second, the teams traded holds to 5-all, before Guo and Mladenovic picked apart Stefani's serve in the 11th games of the set with a trio of return winners, the last a forehand from Guo to break for 6-5. Guo then hit a volley winner to set up championship point in the next game, and that was all she wrote for Dabrowski and Stefani.

"We were really clutch in important moments to get the break on their serve," Mladenovic said. "I think that's what made the big difference in the second set, but also, throughout the match, we really put them under pressure on their service games."

Looking at the big picture

While it appeared as if Dabrowski and Stefani were poised for a breakthrough this fortnight following a dominant run to the final and an equally dominant run to the Eastbourne title in the buildup to Wimbledon, it simply wasn't meant to be.

"The last few weeks have been absolutely amazing," Dabrowski said during the trophy presentation. "I couldn't have imagined being in another position to fight for a Slam title, so I'm very grateful for all the weeks that we have together. I know it didn't work out for us today, but we've put in a lot of good work and I'm still really proud of us."

Despite the loss, Dabrowski and Stefani have excelled in their first year back together, claiming titles in Dubai, Strasbourg and Eastbourne and reaching the semifinals or better at all three Slams played thus far. On Monday, they'll sit No. 3 and No. 4 in the rankings, with the latter marking a career-high for Stefani.

With titles across the 250, 500 and 1000-level events this season, all that remains is that elusive Grand Slam triumph. They should arrive in New York in just over a month among the favorites, with Dabrowski being the defending champion after winning the title with Erin Routliffe last year.

The stakes will be equally high for Mladenovic, a three-time US Open women's doubles runner-up who now has the added pressure of the Career Doubles Slam on the table.

"Of course it's somewhere in the back of my mind," Mladenovic said. "When you are so privileged to live this moment, you're always trying to chase history, right?"