Bryans Claim Fourth Australian Open title

Sunday, 31 January 2010 00:00

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan successfully defended their title Saturday evening at Melbourne Park, defeating Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 to clinch their fourth Australian Open title, and their eighth Grand Slam victory.

That puts them in second place behind Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde (11) for most Grand Slam doubles titles won by a team in the Open Era.

“Emulating Woodbridge and Woodforde is on our mind obviously,” said Bob. “But it’s a few Sundays away before we get to that point. The Woodies are our idols. To be considered in the same league with those guys is an honor itself. I imagine if we stay healthy, we might touch that mark. But if we do we definitely want to honour those guys for all they’ve done for us. Todd, when he retired, he’s given us advice. They’ve been extremely nice to us when we were youngsters.”

With the victory, the Bryans snapped a five-match losing streak against their Canadian-Serbian opponents, confirming their recent 2009 ATP World Tour Doubles Champions title.

The 31-year-old twins attributed their success partly to switching sides on the doubles court, with right-handed Mike returning from the deuce court.

“We thought we would try something different,” explained Mike. “They’ve kind of had our number. Last year they beat us in a lot of finals. We decided to throw a new look at them…It was our first time in a Grand slam playing that way, but it seemed to help…It could be the way of the future.”

The Bryans regained the year-end No 1 ranking last year after winning the ATP World Tour Finals, making it the fourth time they had been crowned ATP World Tour Champions.

Mixed Doubles

Leander Paes and Cara Black took the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Sunday with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Czech Jaroslav Levinsky and Russian Ekaterina Makarova.

It was Indian doubles legend Paes’ 11th major title overall, tying him with former doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi for the most majors won by an Indian player.

Paes claimed his second Australian Open mixed doubles, having won in 2003 with Martina Navratilova, and his fifth mixed doubles total, the second with Zimbabwean Black as a partner.

Paes and Black are now 2-2 in Grand Slam finals, having won the 2008 US Open and finished runners-up at 2009 Wimbledon and US Open.

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Bryans Claim Fourth Australian Open title

Bryans Claim Fourth Australian Open title

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