Mektic-Pavic and Siniakova-Krejcikova named 2021 ITF World Champions
Mektic and Pavic among trio of first-time Croatian ITF World Champions
Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic have been named 2021 ITF World Champions in men’s doubles after a hugely successful season.
Along with Petra Marcinko, who was announced as World Champion in the girls’ category on Tuesday following a late-season surge, the trio become the first Croatian players to receive ITF World Champion recognition.
Mektic and Pavic, who joined forces for the first time in January with an eye on forming a solid partnership for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, instantly gelled as a pair and soared to remarkable heights – reaching 12 finals, winning nine titles, and compiling a 65-13 win-loss record together in 2021.
The duo’s season peaked with triumphs at Wimbledon and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where they became the first Croatian players to win the men’s doubles titles.
“It has been an incredible year for us… Wimbledon, Olympics, nine titles, year-end No. 1 and now the first Croatian pair ever to be named ITF World Champions. It is something special and we are very happy about it,” said Pavic.
“I am very honoured to be named 2021 ITF World Champion,” seconded Mektic. “We had an amazing season and I am glad that it was recognised officially. It is a great achievement and big motivation for us to continue.”
Hardly lacking success before they paired up, Pavic had two Grand Slam doubles titles to his name (winning the 2018 Australian Open with Oliver Marach and the 2020 US Open with Bruno Soares), while Mektic was in a fruitful partnership with Wesley Koolhof that reached that same US Open final and ended with victory at the 2020 ATP Finals in London.
Their decision to form an all-Croatian pair with Tokyo in mind paid off instantly when they won their first two tournaments together at ATP 250 events in Antalya and Melbourne, before Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek brought an end to their 12-match winning streak in the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
They soon returned to winning ways, collecting further hard court titles in Rotterdam and at the ATP Masters-1000 event in Miami, before an emphatic transition to clay delivered further ATP Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Rome either side of a runner-up finish in Madrid.
They were equally slick on grass, collecting the Eastbourne title before going on to beat Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the Wimbledon final and win what Pavic described as “by far the best tournament in the world”.
In so doing, they became the first players from their country to win a title at the All England Club since Goran Ivanisevic won the singles title in 2001, and Ivan Dodig claimed the doubles crown in 2019 with Latisha Chan.
The high of winning Wimbledon might have left them prone to an upset in the quieter surrounds of a behind-closed-doors Olympics in Tokyo, but the pair proved mentally watertight – even when faced with good friends Dodig and Marin Cilic in an all-Croatian final.
Mektic and Pavic squeaked through a deciding tie-break to seal Croatia’s first ever gold medal in tennis at an Olympic Games and, with lifelong friends Dodig and Cilic, the nation’s fourth and fifth Olympic tennis medals.
They ended the year in the form that they started it, going undefeated at the 2021 Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals as Russia narrowly beat Croatia to the Davis Cup title in the Final in Madrid.
Krejcikova and Siniakova secure second World Champion crown
Czech duo Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova are crowned ITF World Champions in the women’s doubles category for a second time following another standout year as a pair.
Krejcikova and Siniakova, who also won the award in 2018, enjoyed another stellar season together highlighted by their victories at Roland Garros and the Tokyo Olympics.
“I am very honoured to be named ITF World Champion again alongside my good friend and doubles partner, Katerina,” said Krejcikova. “To have our hard work and dedication recognised in this way is special and we both appreciate this recognition and hope to build more success on the back of our hard work in 2022 and beyond.”
Krejcikova and Siniakova book-ended 2021 with titles and won five as a team through the year overall, compiling a 34-9 win-loss record together in the process.
The Czech duo, who first teamed up as juniors back in 2013 and won three of the four Grand Slams in girls doubles that same year, won their first nine matches of 2021 in an early season run that took in a WTA Premier 700 title in Melbourne and a runner-up finish at the Australian Open, where only Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka could halt their charge.
They returned to title-winning form during the clay season, beating Gabriela Dabrowski and Demi Schuurs to win Madrid before cruising to the Roland Garros title for the loss of just one set in Paris. Their 6-4 6-2 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Iga Swiatek delivered their third Grand Slam title as a team, and first since they achieved the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double in 2018.
Any hopes of a repeat at the All England Club were quashed when the pair ran into Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina in the quarter-finals, but they would achieve two more significant triumphs before the year was out.
Surviving three match tie-breaks in Tokyo, Krejcikova and Siniakova went on to beat Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic in the final and claim Czech Republic's first gold medal in tennis.
They finished the year in style with their first victory at the WTA Finals, overcoming Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens 6-3 6-4 in the title match.
A uniquely talented pairing, Siniakova and Krejcikova, the year-end doubles world No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, are the fifth team to be named ITF World Champions in women’s doubles on two or more occasions.