First time ever paired with Swiss Ms. Martina Hingis, the Indian quick feet, clear head Leander Paes won the Australian open’s mixed doubles finals today with ease at 6-4 and 6-3 at Melbourne, Australia. They beat French-Canadian pair of Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor.
Leander Paes made good start with good serves and taking the first game easily. In the second game of the first set the pair continued their good play and broke the service to take 2-0 lead and also won their third game with Hingis serving. It was only in the fourth game that Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor managed hold their serve and reach 1-3. They too continued to dominate and break the service of Indo-Swiss pair in the fifth game and hold their service in the sixth game thus tying at 3-3. After a neck to neck competition of 4-4, 5-4 the Indo-Swiss pair broke the service of opponents in 10th game and won the first set 6-4.
The second set was in favor of Mladenovic and Nestor early part as they broke the service of Paes-Hingis early to take 2-1 lead. But the early lead was wiped out as Leander and Hingis broke back the opponent’s service to equal at 2-2, followed by another break to take a formidable lead of 4-2. Then Mladenovic and Nestor did not give up but managed to break and bring the game back on serve 5-3. However the Indo-Swiss pair won the game 6-3 finally.
For Leander Paes, India’s 41-year-old veteran tennis star, it was his 15th Grand Slam title.
We recall the memory of Leander Paes winning doubles title of the 2013 open, became the oldest player in open era to win a grand slam. In 2010 he had become the first male Tennis player after Rod Lever to win Wimbledon in three different decades.
We can recall that on Friday after Leander Paes and Martina Hingis booked their spot in the title clash, Sania Mirza and her Brazilian partner Bruno Soares lost in the mixed doubles semis of Australian Open in Melbourne, thus the dream of watching two Indians Sania Mirza and Leander Paes- face-off against each other in the Australian Open final for the first time had been spoilt.
This shows that at this age Leander Paes has the hunger to play. It is his 15th Grand Slam title. It is a great achievement for such a wonderful player.