Bride-to-be Lyudmyla Kichenok postpones wedding, wins US Open doubles crown
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Ukraine's Lyudmyla Kichenok (right) and Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko with their trophy after winning the US Open women's doubles final.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
NEW YORK – Newly crowned US Open women’s doubles champion Lyudmyla Kichenok had plans to get married this week but revealed on Sept 6 that her unexpected appearance in the latter stages of the Grand Slam forced a postponement.
The 32-year-old is engaged to fellow Ukrainian Stas Khmarsky, the coach of her doubles partner Jelena Ostapenko, and she made sure to include him in her speech during the on-court trophy presentation at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“Also my boyfriend, could be husband actually because we were supposed to get married this Wednesday but it didn’t happen,” said Kichenok after the 6-4, 6-3 win over Chinese-French pairing Zhang Shuai and Kristina Mladenovic.
“We had actually an appointment to get married but (had to postpone) just because I was playing in the semi-finals.”
Former French Open singles champion Ostapenko, who along with Kichenok did not drop a set en route to winning their first Grand Slam doubles title as a team, felt a chance at a Major title merited a change of wedding plans.
“It’s a good excuse to postpone it a bit,” said the Latvian. “And now, win a US Open and go get married, I think it’s pretty great.”
The duo had also reached the final together at this season’s Australian Open, but lost to Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
“We are a really great team and I think it was just an amazing two weeks,” Ostapenko, 27, added.
“We didn’t expect anything, we were just playing better and better every match. We didn’t lose one set, so it was a really good tournament.”
Ostapenko and Kichenok broke in the second game for an early advantage and, after their opponents battled back, had a massive hold in an eight-deuce game during which they fought off five break points for a 5-4 lead.
From there, Zhang was unable to keep the stanza alive and ultimately lost the set with a double-fault.
In the second set, Zhang and Mladenovic broke early for a 3-1 lead but Ostapenko and Kichenok broke back to reach 3-3 and moved on to 5-3 before Ostapenko closed out the match on her serve.
“I still have goosebumps after match point.
“It feels amazing,” said Kichenok, who now has two Grand Slam titles after winning her first with Croat Mate Pavic in mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2023.
“I’m blessed to have such a partner by my side on the court. Thanks for carrying me these two weeks.” REUTERS
