The mixed doubles event has been one to anticipate this year at the European Championships. All through the week pairs have been fighting their way through the draw, and this Sunday Gabrielle and Chris Adcock were crowned as winners.
The second seeded Danes Christinna Pedersen and Mathias Christiansen are a rather new constellation, and even though this was their first individual European championships together on court, they have had some impressive results in the fall of 2017, leading up to this tournament.
But they never seemed to find their top level in Huelva, and the defending champions from England took advantage of that in the beginning of the match and towards the end.
The beginning of the mixed doubles final got brought forward due to a retirement in the match before. And the players started earlier than first expected. But once they got started, it was the entertaining thriller that everyone had hoped and waited for.
- It’s been a really tough week, but we are really proud of this one, Chris Adcock said in the interview on court after the match.
After being behind in the beginning of the first at 10-6, they fought back and finally got away from the Danes to 18-16 and went on to close the game.
In the second game, the Adcocks had a 15-10-lead but never managed to pull through and the Danes crawled back to win the second; 21-17.
The deciding game was close and both pairs took turns in taking the lead. A returning mistake from Christiansen on Chris Adcocks serve gave the English a match point which was followed up by the victory.
The score of the final was; 21-18, 17-21, 21-18, and the Adcocks goes back to England with their second European title.
Find all the results from the 2018 European Championships here