Croatia’s Nikola Mektic wins Australian Open mixed doubles title

by croatiaweek
February 1, 2020
in Sport

MELBOURNE, 1 February 2020 – Croatian tennis player Nikola Mektic (31) has won the Mixed Doubles title at the 2020 Australian Open with his Czech partner Barbora Krejcikova.

The Croat-Czech duo, who were the No. 5 seeds, came from one set down to beat American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her British partner Jamie Murray in the final on Saturday on Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

After serving for the opening set, Mektic and Krejcikova were broken as Mattek-Sands and Murray won three games in a row to take the opening set 7-5.

Mektic and Krejcikova came back to take the second set 6-4 and the tie-break 10-1 to win 5-7, 6-4 (10-1) in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

🏆🏆@B_Krejcikova/@NMektic capture a first team Grand Slam title defeating Mattek-Sands/Murray 5-7 6-4 [10-1].

Krejcikova successfully defends her mixed doubles crown while Mektic wins a maiden Slam trophy.#AusOpen | #AO2020 pic.twitter.com/42zPrUfjaY

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) February 1, 2020

The victory was Mektic’s first Grand Slam title, whilst Krejcikova was the defending champion in Melbourne, having won in 2019 with Rajeev Ram.

The Croatian, who was part of Croatia’s team at the recent ATP Cup, previously reached the mixed doubles final at the US Open. He has won three Masters 1000 ATP tournaments with three different partners – 2018 Mutua Madrid Open, the 2019 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the 2019 Monte-Carlo Masters.