AP
MELBOURNE, January 30
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova won the Australian Open women’s doubles title on Friday in their first tournament together as a partnership, beating Chan Yung-jan and Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Not only had Mattek-Sands and Safarova never played together before the first Grand Slam of the year, they had never even practiced together.
“Actually, we didn’t even really know which side we were going to play,” Mattek-Sands said. “We started off on the opposite sides, (then) we switched. I think we switched again. It was pretty spur of the moment.”
It marked the first time a new pairing had won a Grand Slam title since Nathalie Dechy of France and Russia’s Dinara Safina captured the 2007 U.S. Open title.Mattek-Sands, a 29-year-old from Minnesota known for her adventurous tennis outfits and multi-hued hair, was out for six months last year while recovering from hip surgery and wasn’t sure she would play doubles at Melbourne Park.
“In the off-season it was literally, ‘Let’s play Australian Open.’ I know some teams kind of plan for the year a little bit,” she said. “For me, you know, I want to get a chance to see how my hip felt, see how my body felt.”
The two came together in the off-season because Safarova’s coach is friends with Mattek-Sands’ husband, Justin.
“I had some partners where it took really a long time to find a good combination and to play well, but I think we pretty much (clicked) right away, we played well,” said Safarova, a Czech player who has had more success in singles, reaching the Wimbledon semifinals last year.
Even though they didn’t know each other’s playing styles, they bonded in the locker room over tea each morning.
“We would get our Earl Grey,” Mattek-Sands said.
“Chilling,” Safarova added.
It’s the first Grand Slam trophy for the Czech player. Mattek-Sands previously won the 2012 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Romanian Horia Tecau.
Asked whether she and Safarova had made plans to play again, Mattek-Sands said, “We actually haven’t even talked about it yet.”
Safarova, laughing, responded, “Would you like to play with me?”
Paes and Hingis storm into mixed-doubles final
PTI
MELBOURNE, January 30
Leander Paes kept himself in line for his 15th Grand Slam title by reaching the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Martina Hingis as they defeated Su-Wei Hsieh and Pablo Cuevas in straight sets on Friday.
The seventh seeded Indo-Swiss pair recorded a comfortable 7-5 6-4 win over the unseeded Taipei-Uruguay combine in the semifinals in one hour and 14 minutes.
Paes and Hingis broke Hsieh, who till recently was ranked world number one, thrice in the match.
41-year-old Paes has won eight men’s doubles and six mixed doubles title in his glittering career. He has joined forces with Hingis for the first time in his career. The Swiss legend is also a winner of 14 Grand Slam titles, including five singles.
The seventh seeds had a breakpoint in the very first game when Hingis hit a volley winner but the Swiss missed a backhand winner, letting the opponents hold the serve.
Paes’ serve was broken in the next game when Hsieh hit a lob for a winner at deuce as the unseeded team took a 2-0 lead in the opening set.
Hingis and Paes initially left enough gap between them for Hsieh and Cuevas to take advantage, specially the Taipei player who hit winners comfortably but they later dominated the contest.
The seventh seeds got the break back in the seventh game as Hsieh was broken at love with Hingis hitting a backhand winner on first chance. What followed was a sensational 20-shot rally which the Indo-Swiss pair won courtesy Paes’ super-fast reflexes at the net. The teams were now locked 4-4.
Paes and Hingis broke Hsieh in the 11th game and then the Swiss served out the set to nose ahead in the contest.
They yet again broke the Taipei player for an early lead in the second set, zooming to a 3-1 lead. The set went on serve after that even as Paes and Hingis saved a breakpoint in the sixth game when the Indian was serving.
It was, however, the end of the road for top seeds Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares in the other semi-final of the same category when they lost 6-3, 2-6, 8-10 in one hour and 14 minutes to French-Canadian third seeds Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor.
On the Margaret Court Arena, Mirza and Soares looked well on course when they won the first set in 28 minutes.
But the match changed its route in the second set when Mladenovic and Nestor turned the tables and clinched the second set with ease, pushing the match into the decider.
The super tie-break was a touch-and-go affair and the third seeds took their chances to clinch the match and proceed to the final where they will take on Paes and Hingis.
