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Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic fall short in quest to repeat as Australian Open mixed-doubles champions
MELBOURNE – Canadian Daniel Nestor and his French partner Kristina Mladenovic couldn't quite repeat at Australian Open mixed doubles champions.
They fell one match short, dropping a fairly routine 6-4, 6-3 final to India's Leander Paes and Hall of Famer Martina Hingis Sunday afternoon.
It wasn't the Canadian doubles legend's best match ever, but there was probably no need for mixed-doubles partner Mladenovic, exactly half his age, to throw him under the bus.
But she sort of did.
First, during the on-court speeches, she "joked" that Nestor, who spoke first, thanked everyone – except her, for playing with him.
Awkward. Handled by Nestor.
The first set came down to almost nothing – a swing volley missed by Mladenovic at 4-5, 30-all, then a double-fault by Nestor serving to Hingis. They overcame a 0-3 deficit in that set, but less than a minute changed everything.
Nestor and Mladenovic broke first in the second set, but they couldn't hold it and, in the end, Hingis and Paes were the superior pair.
If he had to change anything, Nestor probably would have dialed it down when serving to Hingis.
"Probably just maybe a little less aggressive on some second serves to Hingis. Too many double-faults. I was overaggressive. The court was playing a little bit different than what we've been used to. It was kicking more when we were playing outside. Today it was more of a dead bounce. I was maybe a little too aggressive with the second serve," he said.
It was the first trip inside Rod Laver Arena for Nestor and Mladenovic; Paes and Hingis played their quarterfinal and semifinal rounds there, while Nestor and Mladenovic were on outside courts. As well, the roof was closed because of some rain, so the conditions really were completely foreign.
"They played better for sure. Obviously there were things we could have done a little bit better. But they were the better team. I mean, even when I thought I was serving okay, they were still making a lot of balls. They played well," Nestor added.
Mladenovic praised how well Paes served.
"We had a lot of opportunities, but we didn’t make it. For my part I held out as much as I could. But the partner needs to hold on serve. That’s what Leander did. He was present everywhere. Served well. But we still had opportunities to be there,” she said.
Ahem. Basically, "I played as well as I could, but my partner didn't hold up his end." Even if it wasn't completely untrue, It's the kind of thing your mixed partner down at the club might say, not a player in a Grand Slam final.
Mladenovic didn't have a gracious day, overall.
Luckily, Nestor isn't the kind of guy who really cares whether he likes his doubles partners or gets along with them – or what they say. He just gets on with the job at hand.
Meanwhie, Hingis and Paes, who had teamed up for World Team Tennis but were playing in their first official tournament together, were emotional on court during the trophy ceremony. Hingis, particularly, had difficulty holding back the tears, and the tremor in her voice was noticeable.
It was her first Grand Slam title since her only other mixed doubles major, which came back in 2006 with another Indian, Mahesh Bhupathi, against the now-retired Elena Likhosvtseva and ... Nestor.
The 34-year-old now has nine titles in Australia – three singles, four women's doubles and two mixed.
"Not even in my wildest dreams would I have believed that 20 years later I'd be standing here again," Hingis said. She made her first appearance in Australia as a 14-year-old in 1995; Paes, 41, first played here in 1994.
