Olivia Gadecki and John Peers on Friday successfully defended their Australian Open mixed doubles title, becoming the first pair to claim back-to-back crowns at the tournament since 1989 after defeating France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard in a dramatic final.
The Australian wild-card pairing prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 at Rod Laver Arena, recovering from a 7-5 deficit in the match tiebreak before closing out the contest on Peers’ serve when Guinard hit a backhand into the net.
Gadecki and Peers are the first reigning Australian Open mixed doubles champions to return to the final and win it the following year since Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor achieved the feat in 2015. Their victory also marked the first successful title defence in the discipline at Melbourne Park since Jim Pugh and Jana Novotna completed the double in 1988 and 1989.
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The French pair took the opening set after Peers sent a shot wide on their second set point, three games after Mladenovic had earlier missed a chance by double-faulting. The Australians responded strongly in the second set, breaking serve for a 3-1 lead and winning 13 of the next 15 points to level the match.
In the deciding tiebreak, Gadecki and Peers showed composure under pressure to turn the contest around and seal the championship in front of a home crowd.
“Olivia, I'm sort of speechless,” Peers said at the trophy presentation. “Thank you for playing with me again, we had great fun this week and somehow snuck away with this one, but it's been so much fun sharing the court with you.”
Mladenovic, who was bidding for her fourth Grand Slam mixed doubles title, congratulated the winners at the ceremony. “Winning a Grand Slam once is very difficult but defending it is even harder ... big congrats to you!” she said.
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