In a contest that had historians poring through the archives, Olivia Gadecki and John Peers secured the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Rod Laver Arena on Friday thanks to a late fightback and gritty match tie-break performance.
The pair overcame fellow Australians Kim Birrell and John-Patrick Smith 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 in 84 minutes to secure the title and $175,000 in prize money, after they entered their home grand slam as wildcards.
Gadecki, one of Australia’s emerging female talents, made up for a disappointing singles campaign with several crucial contributions in the deciding tie-break, including a smash on match point.
She described her form as “incredible” in the closing stages. “I thought we’re going to have a crack and just enjoy the moment,” she said. “I played some of my best tennis in that last ten minutes, and I’m so glad we could get over the line.”
Veteran Peers has now won two mixed doubles grand slams in Melbourne and New York, as well as an Australian Open title and Paris Olympics gold medal in men’s doubles.
After the good-natured clash, Peers paid credit to Birrell and Smith. “You guys did an unbelievable job, you were class today, another great effort,” he said. “We just got a little lucky at the end.”
Birrell and Smith – who turned 35 on the day of the match – secured a break in the second game on Peers’ serve and held firm to take the first set. They looked most likely to walk away with the trophy until a late momentum swing.
The second set went on serve until Smith gave up a break with a double fault at 4-5, levelling the contest and forcing the final to a match tie-break. Peers and Gadecki raced away to a 4-1 lead but were pegged back momentarily, before winning five of the last six points to secure the title.
Despite the defeat, it marks the end of a successful summer for Birrell. The 26-year-old won 12 of 16 matches on the Australian swing over singles and doubles formats and is set to reach a career high singles ranking next week in the 90s.
Gadecki, at age 22, sits just back from Birrell as the third-highest ranked Australian woman, but is primed for a push to establish herself inside the top 100 this year despite a disappointing singles result last week.
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She won just two games in a first round defeat to Veronika Kudermetova, but she put that experience behind her with this doubles run, and afterwards expressed her gratitude to Peers. “Thank you so much for playing with me and letting me ride the wave and just having a great time out there,” she said.
They are the first Australian pair to win the mixed doubles title at Melbourne Park since Matt Ebden and Jarmila Wolfe (née Gajdosova) in 2013, and reaffirm the country’s doubles credentials.
There has been an Australian winner in the men’s doubles at Melbourne Park in three straight years between 2022 and 2024, and Sam Stosur lifted the women’s doubles trophy with Shuai Zhang in 2019.
The match-up was the first all-Australian mixed doubles final at Melbourne Park during the Open Era. Not since Lesley Turner and Owen Davidson beat Judy Tegart and Tony Roche in the Australian Championships in 1967 had all four finalists been locals.
Gadecki and Peers collect $175,000 in prize money, split between them, while Birrell and Smith share $97,750 as runners-up. It is a major payday but pales into comparison with the winners of the singles tournaments, who take home $3.5m each. The men’s and women’s doubles champions also receive significantly more, at $810,000 per pair.
In the girls’ singles semi-final, highly-touted Australian Emerson Jones lost to fourth seed Wakana Sonobe. The Japanese player had already eliminated one Australian, Tahlia Kokkinis, in the previous round and proved too good for Jones, winning 6-3, 6-4 in 74 minutes.
Source: theguardian.com
