Melbourne: Australia’s John Peers and his Finnish partner Henri Kontinen upset highly decorated Americans Bob and Mike Bryan to win the Australian Open men’s doubles on Saturday.
Seeded four, they came through a tough battle 7-5, 7-5 on Rod Laver Arena to deprive the third-seeded Bryan brothers of a seventh Melbourne title and a 17th Grand Slam crown.
For Peers and Kontinen it was a first major title, with the Melbourne-born Australian fittingly hitting the winner, spinning a lob over the head of the Bryan twins. He is the first Australian to win the title since Todd Woodbridge in 2001.
Meanwhile, Sania Mirza will be eyeing her seventh Grand Slam title when she plays the Australian Open mixed doubles final with her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig here on Sunday.
If the Indo-Croatian pair manages to win on Sunday, it would be Sania’s first Grand Slam title with Dodig and fourth major mixed doubles triumph overall.
The second-seeded combination will be clashing with the unseeded Abigail Spears of America and Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal in the grand finale at Melbourne Park.
The 30-year-old has won three mixed doubles titles so far, the last being the 2014 US Open with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
With Dodig, she had an opportunity to win last year when she reached the French Open final but lost to compatriot Leander Paes and her then women’s doubles partner Martina Hingis in the summit clash.
It will be Sania’s fifth final at the Australian Open. She was runner-up with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2008, and the pair triumphed the following year. She was runner-up in 2014 with Horia Tecau.
Sania is the lone Indian to have made all the way to the first Grand Slam final of the season as Paes, Rohan Bopanna, Purav Raja, Divij Sharan and juniors — Zeel Desai and Siddhant Banthia — all made early exits.
