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Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau were crowned the Australian Open Mixed Doubles Champions with a hard fought 6-3, 5-7, [10-3] win over the no.5 seeds Elena Vesnina and Leander Paes.
The Indo-Russian pair started the match very slowly, losing the first 8 points in a row to fall 2-0 behind in just 4 minutes. Leander in particular was considerably off-colour and did not appear to have his game face on in the first set.
Mattek-Sands and Tecau cruised through the opening set 6-3 and looked on course for an easy win as they went up an early break in the second set. The American - Romanian pair held on to that advantage till a short 6-7 minute rain delay halted the final.
Paes and Vesnina came out stronger after the interval and broke the Mattek-Sands serve to get the set back on level terms. A rather stiff looking Bethanie didn't really help her own cause by throwing in a couple of double faults in the game.
The set went down to the wire, and Mattek-Sands was broken again in the 12th game on the deciding deuce point, sending the match into a match tie-break.
The momentum was with Vesnina and Paes heading into the tiebreak, but that swung dramatically on the first point with Mattek-Sands coming up with an unbelievable running forehand pass from at least 4 feet outside the court. That point brought the American alive again, and with a shanked volley and a net cord going Mattek-Sands / Tecau's way, their team was once again in the ascendancy.
Mattek-Sands and Tecau eventually ran away with the breaker, taking it 10-3 to record a very unexpected, but richly desereved win.
- 29/01/2012 22:45 - Australian Open 2012: Closing Notes
- 29/01/2012 20:03 - Australian Open Final 2012: Djokovic triumphs over Nadal in a true clash of the titans
