Romanian tennis player Horia Tecau and America’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands (top seeds 8), won the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open on Sunday, defeating Russia’s Elena Vesnina and India’s Leander Paes (top seeds 5), score 6-3, 5-7, 10-3.
Tecau and Mattek-Sands won the game in 102 minutes. This was the first Grand Slam title of their careers. Tecau previously reached two Grand Slam finals in the men’s doubles event alongside Robert Linstedt, in 2010 and 2011 at Wimbledon.
The Romanian won over one million USD after his evolutions at the Australian Open.
“It’s a wonderful feeling. It’s very difficult to win such a title. I’ve played two finals until now and I’m glad I’ve finally won one. I’m in a bit of a hurry, I have to run to the airport in half an hour, but this feeling will last for some time and I want to enjoy it. It’s good I broke the ice, especially since I know how difficult that is. I hope other titles will follow from now on,” Tecau stated for Mediafax.
Virginia Ruzici and Ion Tiriac were the last Romanians that played a Grand Slam final. The two lost the Roland Garros final in 1979. Ilie Nastase won two mixed doubles titles in 1970 and 1972, both at Wimbledon, alongside America’s Rosemary Casals.
Djokovic beats Nadal in epic final
Novak Djokovic outlasted Rafael Nadal 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 7-5 to claim his third Australian Open after the longest final in Grand Slam history at a sweltering Melbourne Park, according to Eurosport.
With temperatures reaching well over 30 degrees at the outset of the match on Rod Laver Arena, it was Serbia’s Djokovic who kept his cool in the key moments as he was broken by Nadal in the final set only to break his opponent twice in an astonishing contest that ran for five hours and 50 minutes.
It will be recalled as one of the greatest finals the sport has witnessed with neither man Nadal is officially number two in the world, but should take enormous heart from his performance despite losing a seventh straight match to his nemesis.
Djokovic becomes the fifth man to win three straight Grand Slams having throttled Nadal in the Wimbledon and US Open finals last year.
Azarenka, new world number one
Victoria Azarenka crushed Maria Sharapova (6-3, 6-0) to claim her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and also secure the world number one ranking, according to Eurosport.
Azarenka, who will take over from Caroline Wozniacki in the top spot when the new rankings are released on Monday, needed just 82 minutes to dispatch Sharapova, even subjecting the former champion to the ignominy of a bagel second set.
