MELBOURNE: Olivia Gadecki and John Peers became the first team to win consecutive Australian Open mixed doubles titles since 1989 after beating the French pair of Kristina Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 on Friday.
The Australians trailed 7-5 in the final-set tiebreaker before coming back to lead 9-7. On match point and with Peers serving, Guinard hit a backhand into the net to clinch victory for the home players at Rod Laver Arena.
Wild-card entries Gadecki and Peers were the first reigning Australian Open mixed doubles champions to return to the final the following year since Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor in 2015. The 23-year-old Gadecki was born 13 years after Jim Pugh and Jana Novotna went back to back in 1988 and 1989.
"Sort of a bit shocked," Peers said. "That could have gone either way. Just sort of happy that we kept sticking with it . . . it was on a knife's edge."
The French team won the opening set on its second set point when Peers hit a shot wide, three games after Mladenovic double-faulted on set point and the Australian team broke to keep the set alive.
In the second set, Gadecki and Peers went ahead 3-1 on a service break and then held to take a 4-1 lead, winning 13 of 15 points to put them in control of the set and level the match.
Mladenovic was trying to win her fourth Grand Slam mixed doubles title — she won Wimbledon in 2013 and the Australian Open in 2014 with Nestor and the 2022 Australian Open mixed doubles title with Ivan Dodig. She also has six Grand Slam women's doubles titles.
"Winning a Grand Slam once is very difficult but defending it is even harder ... big congrats to you!" Mladenovic said to Gadecki and Peers.