Paes-Black claim mixed doubles title

Top seed Leander Paes levelled with Mahesh Bhupathi’s 11 Grand Slam titles when he, partnering Cara Black, outplayed Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Czech Jaroslav Levinsky 7-5, 6-3 to clinch the Australian Open mixed doubles title at Melbourne Park on Jan 31.

It was Paes and Black’s second major win together after losing in back-to-back finals at the Wimbledon and the US Open last year. Their only title had come in the US Open in 2008, their first outing as a team. The win gave 36-year-old Paes his 11th Grand Slam title, bringing him level with compatriot Bhupathi, also his one-time doubles partner. Incidentally, Bhupathi and Sania Mirza were the defending champions this year but had to pull out due to Bhupathi’s injured calf muscle.

Paes now has six doubles and five mixeddoubles titles. It was also his second Australian Open mixed doubles title having won his first in 2003 with Martina Navratilova.

For Black, it was her ninth Grand Slam title. She also reached the women’s doubles at Melbourne with Liezel Huber where they lost to Venus and Serena Williams.

“Winning Grand Slams is obviously fantastic in a partnership,” said Paes. “Our experience came in handy. I love playing with Cara. What I really respect about Cara is that, in particular, she is a very sensitive human being. She is intelligent and hard working. Every time I step on the court with her I know she’s going to put everything out there.”

For her part, Black said Paes had promised her that they would win at Melbourne.

“We talked about it last year. He promised me we were going to get this one. He’s good at keeping his promises,” Black said.

The Indo-Zimbabwean pair proved too strong for the unseeded Levinsky and Makarova, who were playing their first Grand Slam final.

Paes led the charge with his strong net play and nimble footwork as the top seeds wrapped the contest in one hour and eight minutes under a closed roof on Rod Laver Arena.

Paes and Black served solid, with 79 per cent of their first serves in, while Makarova and Levinsky could manage just 53 per cent.

Makarova and Levinsky fought hard to break twice in the first set, but were broken back five times in the match.

The first set saw five breaks as both pairs made tentative starts.

After trading breaks twice, Paes and Black broke Makarova’s serve to go 6-5 ahead and then closed out the set with a solid game in 36 minutes.

The Indo-Zimbabwean pair cruised to a 2-0 lead in the second set. Paes’s swift winners at the net and Black’s solid serve kept them ahead and when they broke again at 5-3, they won the championship.

Other Indian links at the Australian Open Men’s Doubles

In the men’s doubles event, Leander Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy, seeded third, got his Belarussian partner Max Mirnyi, who reunited for the season, went down to Michael Kohlmann of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 4-6, 4-6. However, the doubles campaign of Somdev and Amritraj ended in the second round with a tame 1-6, 3-6 loss to 11th seeds Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Paul Hanley of Australia.

Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s AisamUl-Haq Qureshi bowed out in the men’s doubles first round, losing to South Africa’s Rik de Voest and American Scott Lipsky 6-4, 1-6, 6-7 (6).

Women’s Doubles

In the women’s doubles event, the 10thseeded pair of Sania Mirza and Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual battled past Swiss Timea Bacsinszky and Italian Tathiana Garbin to reach the third round, but lost out 4-6, 3-6 to seventh seeds Alisa Kleybanova of Russia and Italian Francesca Schiavone.

Singles

India’s star player Sania Mirza crashed out of the Australian Open first round losing to Aravane Rezai of France in straight sets at Melbourne Park. She lost 4-6, 2-6 to the 26th seed Rezai.

Sania could convert only one of her eight break points while Rezai broke four times to win the match in 69 minutes.

It was the third meeting between Sania and Aravane with the latter now enjoying a 2-1 record.

Sania was the only Indian competing in the singles event as Somdev Devvarman, Prakash Amritraj and Yuki Bhambri bowed out at different stages of the qualifiers.

The 23-year old Hyderabadi, ranked 56th, inspiring. She crashed out early at Auckland and Hobart warm up events. (We know now that she was battling personal issues, as she announced the break-up of her engagement soon after the Australian Open).

Juniors

The juniors section saw two Indian players Rishika Sunkara and Vaidik Munshaw.

Sixteen-year-old Rishika went down tamely to third-seeded Russian Daria Gavrilova in Australian Open tennis girls’ singles. Rishika, who came through the qualifiers to be in the main draw, lost 0-6, 2-6 in the second round. She bowed out of the doubles first round with her Japanese partner Yuki Ito.

Vaidik went down fighting to 13th-seeded Belgian Arthur De Greef 4-6, 6-7(5), and crashed out in the first round of the boys’ doubles as well.