Mattek-Sands/Tecau conquer Vesnina/Paes in the mixed doubles final – Australian Open 2012
Eighth seeds, Bethanie Mattek-Sands of America and Horia Tecau of Romania, rallied past the Russian-Indian duo, Elena Vesnina and Leander Paes, in a three set nail-biter at the Australian Open 2012 on Sunday. They registered a 6-3, 5-7, 10-3 victory over
the fifth seeds to claim their first title at this Grand Slam event taking place in Melbourne, Australia.
Mattek-Sands made sure that Americans didn’t leave empty handed from Melbourne after grabbing the mixed doubles title at this major hard court tournament. The American had never reached the title-round of any event at Grand Slams but she not only made a
final berth here but also earned the limelight. The Romanian on the other hand was playing his third final here but he made a breakthrough after achieving success for the first time.
The underdogs stormed at the Rod Laver Arena and quickly went 2-0 up with a break of serve. Later the American-Romanian pair held remaining serves and broke their opponents’ serve again in the fourth game, ultimately bagging the opener by winning six games
to three.
Mattek-Sands and Tecau kept momentum rolling into the following set and after capitalising on one out four break chances, they went 4-2 up.
"Elena came up with some good volleys in the second set. In the beginning we were kind of picking on her at net and she was missing a few," Mattek-Sands said. "Kudos to them for coming back. They're good doubles players. We weren't quite penetrating. But
I think we just needed to get some bugs out."
"It's a good feeling to win it like this, the hard way," the Romanian said after the match. "They are two good players - Bethanie helped me stay positive and fight through this final, which was amazing."
The higher ranked duo redeployed their strategy after this and conquered five of the last six games to register a 7-5 score line. Paes and Vesnina converted two out of five break opportunities to their advantage and outshined their rivals in every department
of tennis to equalise the set score.
The match was standing on a knife edge but the highly energetic tandem of Mattek-Sands and Tecau found their rhythm again in this final set. They quickly took a 3-0 lead and after maintaining their intensity, they pulled out the decider with a 10-3 success
in 12 minutes.
Overall, Mattek-Sands and Tecau committed 20 unforced errors but fired 34 winners to overpower their veteran opponents. They registered magnificent 28 out of 36 points on their first serve share and smacked six ferocious aces. The American-Romanian pair
also sought eleven break opportunities but capitalised on three to prevail.
The high flying duo is hoping to play together at the French Open, second of the four Grand Slam event held on the clay courts in France. They need to cash in more of their break chances and improve their defensive skills in order to grab another title.
The Russian-Indian tandem displayed exceptional co-ordination and clobbered a better first serve share of 68 percent as opposed to the winning seeds’ 55 percent. However, they failed to find a breakthrough and ended the match with 55 points. The Indian has
won mixed doubles title in 2003 and 2010 with American legend Martina Navratilova and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black. This match marked his 13th Grand Slam final.
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