Fifth seeds Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool capped their remarkable summer by claiming the Wimbledon crown and their inaugural Grand Slam title as a pair on Saturday, defeating Rinky Hijikata and David Pel 6-2, 7-6(3) in the men’s doubles final. Cash and Glasspool, who are also Queen’s Club and Eastbourne champions, became the first all-British pairing to win the All England Club trophy since 1936, when Pat Hughes and Raymond Tuckey triumphed over their compatriots Charles Hare and Frank Wilde in the final.
“When you say it, it sounds incredible,” said Glasspool. “We’ve had a Brit win it last year [Henry Patten], the year before that (Neal Skupski) so I didn’t think too much of it, but now we needed to give you two so we did our best.”
The local favourites started strong, securing an early break due to a poor service game from Pel, and swiftly navigated through the opening set with minimal effort, leaving the Centre Court crowd energized on a sunny day. The Australian-Dutch duo of Hijikata and Pel managed to save a break point at the beginning of the second set and applied pressure in the fourth game, but their opponents were up to the challenge and moved a step closer to the title when they went up 4-2.
Hijikata and Pel, who entered the tournament as alternates and narrowly survived match points in their first two rounds, managed to level the score after eight games before Cash and Glasspool raised their game in the tiebreak to prevail, sparking huge celebrations.
“We’ve played a crazy amount of tennis on the grass, every match we possibly could,” said Cash. “So a lot of people were talking, coming into this event. There was a lot of pressure on our shoulders. And the fact we’ve been able to do what everyone was talking about is surreal.”
The runners-up maintained cheerful demeanours despite the loss. “We didn’t even meet before the tournament,” the 34-year-old Pel said. “I mean, it was our first time speaking on the day the tournament started.” Hijikata, who won the 2023 Australian Open title with Jason Kubler, referred to his All England Club experience as a “crazy ride.”
“It’s been so much fun playing with David,” Hijikata said. “He’s brought such great energy on the court. He’s made it very easy for me out there. It’s a dream come true to be playing on Centre Court. A bit shattered, but it was a lot of fun.”
