Henry Searle is lauding it after becoming the first British boys' singles champion at Wimbledon since 1962 after beating Yaroslav Demin at the tournament in SW19.
The Wolverhampton-born 'wonder kid' won the Junior title after a straight 6-4, 6-4 win on Court One, making him the country's first junior champion since Laura Robson won the girls' event in 2008. His win equals that of Stanley Matthews, the son of the famous legendary footballer of the same name, who became a junior champion 61 years ago.
It preceded another youngster, 10-year-old Carlos Alcaraz winning the men's singles title for the first time by ending Novak Djokovic's recent dominance with a stunning victory. Spain's Alcaraz, 20, fought back from a nervy start to win 1-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 3-6 6-4 against the defending champion.
17-year-old Searle’s victory over fifth seed Demin followed other home success at this year's tournament, with Neal Skupski winning the men's doubles with Dutch playing partner Wesley Koolhof. “To play on Court One with such a special crowd was amazing,” he said.
“It was very special, and I was glad that I manage to get the job done.” The girls’ singles was won by the American Clervie Ngounoue, who defeated Czech, Nikola Bartunkova, 6-2, 6-2 to win her first junior grand slam title.
For the 16-year-old, she became the second straight American - and 15th overall - to win the girls' singles title at the All England Club - Liv Hovde won it last year, becoming only the second American in 30 years to do so. "I was really excited that this was my first," said Ngounoue.
"It was a battle out there." Italy’s Gabriele Vulpitta and Jakub Filip of the Czech Republic won the boys’ doubles title by beating Branko Djuric of Serbia and Arthur Gea of France 6-3, 6-3.
The girls’ doubles final saw Czech duo Laura Samsonova and Alena Kovackova beating British pair Hannah Klugman and Isabelle Lacy with a 6-4, 7-5 straight sets win.
