American Mattek-Sands With Safarova Win Women’s Doubles Title in Melbourne
The unseeded duo of American Bethanie Mattek-Sands & Czech Lucie Safarova captured the Australian Open women’s doubles title on Friday, defeating 14th-seeded Chan Yung-jan & Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-6(5).
It was the first tournament the two played together as a doubles tandem, becoming the first duo win a Grand Slam title in their first tournament together since the 2007 US Open.
“Actually, we didn’t even really know which side we were going to play,” said Mattek-Sands, a 29-year old from Minnesota. “We started off on the opposite sides, (then) we switched. I think we switched again. It was pretty spur of the moment.”
The two found their chemistry early on in the tournament and had to play through a few tough three-setters before getting into the title match.
In the opening set on Friday, the American-Czech pair broke twice and hit more winners than unforced errors to roll 6-4.
The service games became a bit harder for both teams in the second set as there were six breaks of serve combined. Mattek-Sands & Safarova were able to edge the Chinese duo in a tiebreaker to win their first tournament together.
“I had some partners where it took really a long time to find a good combination and to play well, but I think we pretty much (clicked) right away, we played well,” said Safarova.
Mattek-Sands wasn’t even sure if she would be able to play in Melbourne just a few weeks ago as she recovered from hip surgery that forced her to miss the second half of 2014.
“In the offseason it was literally, ‘Let’s play Australian Open.’ I know some teams kind of plan for the year a little bit,” said Mattek-Sands of the duo’s decision to play together. “For me, you know, I want to get a chance to see how my hip felt, see how my body felt.”
The Grand Slam title is the first for Safarova, while Mattek-Sands adds a second Grand Slam title to her resume (she won the 2012 U.S. Open mixed-doubles title with Romanian Horia Tecau).
