A stunning shot right at the death saw Naiktha Bains and Maia Lumsden battle their way past seeded opponents at Wimbledon.
After receiving a wildcard as a duo for the second straight year, Leeds’ Bains and Glasgow’s Lumsden were handed a tough opening round draw against 11th seeds Anna Danilina and Xu Yifan.
Yifan and Danilina have both reached Grand Slam doubles finals in their careers, and the pairing took the opening set despite a strong showing from the British duo.
But Bains and Lumsden rallied and took the second and third sets in tiebreaks to seal a 3-6 7-6(3) 7-6(9) victory, much to the delight of the home crowd.
And afterwards, all they could think about was the stunning backhand pass Lumsden hit to set up their second match point, which they closed out at 10-9 up in the decisive tiebreak.
Bains said: “I remember being 6-1 down, and I think the thing that just stands out is Maia’s backhand angled pass to give us the match. It’s all a bit of a blur, but it’s just mental – absolutely crazy!”
Lumsden added: “It’s probably my favourite shot, but it hadn’t really worked in that match before. It wasn’t hitting a winner off it, it was always being covered. I just thought: ‘I’m going to go for it anyway’ and luckily I pulled it out!”
Bains and Lumsden are yet to find out who their second round opponents are, but they are taking huge confidence after such a significant round one victory,
“It gives us confidence for sure, to play a high level team and get the win. The first set, we felt like we were close, even though we weren’t maybe winning the games,” commented Lumsden.
“We believed we could do it, we kept going and got our chances in the second, and kept going through the third.”
For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website
