Home favourites Olivia Gadecki and John Peers successfully defended their Australian Open mixed doubles title on Friday, overcoming French pair Kristina Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a tense final that lasted 93 minutes.
The Australian duo became the first team to retain the mixed doubles crown at Melbourne Park since Jana Novotna and Jim Pugh achieved the feat in 1989. After a shaky first set, they levelled with a single break in the second and rallied from 5-7 down in the match tiebreak to clinch victory on their second match point.
Gadecki, 23, who lost in singles qualifying this year, played a pivotal role in the comeback, forcing an error from Guinard at the net and winning two points on serve to take the lead. Peers sealed the win with a kick serve that Guinard could only net.
“Thank you for wanting to play with me again this year,” Gadecki said to her partner. “I knew we could do it, but I didn’t think we could really do it.” Peers added: “We had great fun this week and somehow snuck away with this one.”
The victory earned the pair nearly $200,000 in prize money.
