Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India win French Open mixed doubles
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PARIS -- Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi of India won the mixed doubles title Thursday with a 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over Klaudia Jans-Ignacik of Poland and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico.
The 2009 Australian Open champions rallied from a 5-3 deficit to force a tiebreaker in the first set before cruising in the second.
Jans-Ignacik and Gonzalez were playing their first Grand Slam final.
Bhupathi, one of the most successful men's doubles and mixed doubles players ever, won the title in style on his 38th birthday.
Sania had become first woman tennis player from India to win a Grand Slam with that Australian Open trophy.
"I don't need to give gift to my partner (now that we have won)," Sania said jokingly after the match.
It was the Indian pair, which got the first break chance in the very first game, but not only they missed that, Sania dropped her serve in the third game.
Sania struggled with both her serve and returns and Bhupathi too was not getting his shot placements right. They were down 1-3 and also squandered two break chances when Klaudia was serving in the eighth game.
But they lifted their game and spirit up, broke Santiago in the 10th game when Bhupathi smashed an overhead volley to draw parity. The set was stretched into a tie-break, where the experienced Indians prevailed.
The second set was no contest as the Indians ran through their rivals. Santiago was broken in the very first game and the Indians were unstoppable after that.
Another break of serve off Santiago put the Indians ahead 4-1 and they comfortably sealed the match.
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