Daily Times

MELBOURNE: Taiwanese-Polish duo Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zielinski won a match tiebreaker to claim the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Friday, with an nail-biting 6-7(5) 6-4 (11-9) victory over American Desirae Krawczyk and Britain’s Neal Skupski. The victory earned Hsieh her first mixed doubles Grand Slam title, and the 38-year-old is also in the running to win her seventh major women’s doubles trophy, having reached the final Down Under with partner Elise Mertens. “It was a really tough match but we made it,” Hsieh said. “Thank you so much for such a great match, it was really fun on court to play you guys.” “We didn’t have anyone to play mixed doubles with. We found each other on the looking list and it’s worked out pretty well,” Zielinski added. “Maybe we can keep it going.” The match was a thrilling encounter of contrasting styles, with Krawczyk’s raw power coming up against Hsieh’s inventive shot making as the first set went down to the wire. Krawczyk and Skupski broke to take a 4-3 lead, but faltered when serving out the set, allowing Hsieh and Zielinski to break back and level at 5-5.