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Naked ambition fires Llodra and Clément to end French drought

This article is more than 17 years old

Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra became the first Frenchmen in 74 years to win the Wimbledon men's doubles title and Llodra the first ever to end the tournament without any equipment, after a 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the top-seeded titleholders, Bob and Mike Bryan.

It was a startling effort against the American pair, who have dominated the tour over the past couple of years, but it might have been even more startling given Llodra's propensity for exhibitionism.

In the US he once shut himself naked in a 4ft-high locker, in Spain he once disrobed after winning a title, and after he and Fabrice Santoro won the Australian Open they stripped down to some very brief underpants.

Here they restricted themselves to throwing shirts into the crowd, Llodra jettisoning so many of them that he had none left with which to receive the trophy from Roger Taylor. He had to borrow one from his brother, Bruno, in the crowd. Llodra also threw away all his rackets - leaving him none, he claimed, with which to compete in the ATP Tour event in Newport this week.

Had he considered going in the nip here as well? "Here in Britain it would be too shocking," he said.

Cara Black and Liezel Huber, the No2 seeds, won their second Wimbledon women's doubles title with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the Slovenian Katerina Srebotnik and Japan's Ai Sugiyama.

Black, of Zimbabwe, and the South African Huber came from a set down to win their second grand slam championship of the year, having triumphed in the Australian Open in January.

Srebotnik and Sugiyama, who were seeded No4 as a pair and were each among the seeds in the singles draw, claimed the only break in the first set to take an early advantage. But both women were then broken in the second and third sets to add Wimbledon final defeat to that in the French Open final in June.

For Black and Huber, who did not defend their 2005 title last year, the victory yesterday extended their unbeaten run at Wimbledon to 12 matches.

Donald Young, the 17-year-old American prodigy, defeated the Belarussian Vladimir Ignatic 7-5, 6-1 for the boys' title yesterday. The victory offered succour to those with concerns about the future of American tennis once players such as Andy Roddick and James Blake move into the latter stages of their careers.

"You have a couple of young guys coming up," Young said. "I feel we're doing pretty well right now. We're used to having all the great players, No1 and No2 in the world, and with three, four slams a year there's an American person winning. I mean, hopefully I can step up, do well, just be a part of it."

Young began playing professional events after his first junior grand slam championship victory in the 2005 Australian Open. However, he initially struggled when he took on bigger, older men at ATP Tour events where he was, unwisely, given wild cards at the behest of his management company, IMG.

The American eventually dropped down to Futures and Challenger tournaments, where he has enjoyed modest success, but has returned to the junior ranks a chastened player with more realistic short-term ambitions.

"When I played I was losing in Challengers and Futures also. It was just confidence and the guys are good, they're different," he said. "I had to work on my game. Now I'm doing the necessary things to win matches in the Futures and Challengers. It's not a big difference between that and juniors. These guys are juniors, but they're going to be the next pros."

Urszula Radwanska of Poland won the girls' singles after coming from a set and a break down to beat the American Madison Brengle 6-2, 3-6, 6-0. Radwanska's elder sister, Agnieszka, won the Wimbledon girls' title in 2005.

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