February 1, 2020 - Nikola Mektic and Czech partner Barbora Krejčíková have won the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open!
Croatian tennis player Nikola Mektic and Czech partner Barbora Krejčíková defeated American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Briton Jamie Murray 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-1) in the Australian Open final after 85 minutes of play.
Mektic has thus become the fourth Croatian tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament in mixed doubles and has brought the 14th total Grand Slam title to Croatian tennis.
Mektic and Krejčíková were the first to come to a break at the beginning of the match and held that advantage until the tenth game in which the Croatian tennis player served. But at the deciding point, Mektic made a double error for an equal 5-5 game. Murray and Mattek-Sands won the next two games, bringing them the first set.
In the second set, the Croatian-Czech duo played four games with two breaks to lead 5-2. But again, Murray and Mattek-Sands broke on Krejčíková’s serve. Mektic didn’t repeat the same mistake of the first set and made it 6-4 in the second set, bringing the final decision to a prolonged tie-break.
In the tie-break, Mektic and Krejčikova played without error, went to 10-1, and after 85 minutes of play, became the new winners of the Australian Open.
This is Mektic’s first Grand Slam title in his second final, after losing in the US Open final in 2018 with Polish partner Alicja Rosolska.
Those #AO2020 victory smiles ?@B_Krejcikova x @NMektic#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/yLEzKKfXXP
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 1, 2020
Barbora Krejčíková thus defended last year's title, when she won with American partner Rajeev Ram. The Czech player also has two women's doubles titles with Katerina Siniakov (Roland Garros and Wimbledon 2018) and is unbeaten in Grand Slam finals.
Mektic and Krejčíková will split AUD 190,000, while the defeated finalists will earn AUD 100,000.
.@NMektic makes his debut speech as a Grand Slam winner ?#AO2020 | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/ZI4Ti6TEpA
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 1, 2020
Before Mektic, Grand Slam mixed doubles titles were won by Dragutin Mitic (Roland Garros in 1938 paired with Simonne Mathieu), Mate Pavic (US Open 2016 with Laura Siegemund and Australian Open 2018 with Gabriela Dabrowski) and record holder Ivan Dodig (Roland Garros 2018 & 2019 & Wimbledon 2019 with Latish Chan).
Iva Majoli (Roland Garros 1997), Goran Ivanisevic (Wimbledon 2001) and Marin Cilic (US Open 2014) boast individual Grand Slam titles, men’s doubles were won by Nikola Pilic (US Open 1970 with Pierre Barthes), Ivan Dodig (Roland Garros 2015 with Marcelo Melo) and Mate Pavic (Australian Open 2018 with Oliver Marach) and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (Australian Open 1998 with Martina Hingis) triumphed in women's doubles.
Source: HRT
To read more about sport in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.
