MANILA, Philippines — Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok became a Grand Slam champion, just two days after cancelling her wedding.
Kichenok, 32, teamed up with Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko to beat Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-3 in the women’s doubles final.
On Wednesday, she had been planning to marry boyfriend Stas Khmarsky who is also Ostapenko’s coach.
But a run to the championship match for the seventh seeds meant the ceremony was temporarily shelved.
“My boyfriend and I were supposed to get married on Wednesday but it didn’t happen,” said Kichenok.
“We actually had the appointment but I was playing the semifinals.”