Paes and Black win Australian Open mixed doubles title
2010-01-31 23:41:20 GMT2010-02-01 07:41:20 (Beijing Time)
Xinhua English
Cara Black (L) of Zimbabwe and Leander Paes of India attend the awarding ceremony for the mixed doubles event in 2010 Australian Open Tennis Championship at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park, Jan. 31, 2010. Cara Black and Leander Paes defeated Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of the Czech Republic 2-0 in the final on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
Cara Black (L2) of Zimbabwe and Leander Paes (L1) of India attend the awarding ceremony for the mixed doubles event in 2010 Australian Open Tennis Championship at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park, Jan. 31, 2010. Cara Black and Leander Paes defeated Ekaterina Makarova (R2) of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky (R1) of the Czech Republic 2-0 in the final on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
Cara Black (R) of Zimbabwe and Leander Paes of India attend the awarding ceremony for the mixed doubles event in 2010 Australian Open Tennis Championship at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park, Jan. 31, 2010. Cara Black and Leander Paes defeated Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of the Czech Republic 2-0 in the final on Sunday. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Leander Paes (Back) of India celebrate after the final of mixed doubles agasint Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of the Czech Republic in 2010 Australian Open Tennis Championship at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park, Jan. 31, 2010. Cara Black and Leander Paes won 2-0 and got the champion. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
MELBOURNE, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- India's Leander Paes and Zimbabwe's Cara Black won the Australian Open mixed doubles title after beating Jaroslav Levinsky and Ekaterina Makarova in straight sets at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.
The top seeded duo closed out the final with a scoreline of 7-5, 6-3.
Paes has already featured in 20 Grand Slam doubles (men's and mixed combined) finals, winning 10 of those, while the lady from Zimbabwe has played 15 major doubles finals and emerged victorious eight times.
Neither the 27-year-old Czech Levinsky nor 21-year-old Russian Makarova has been involved in a title-clash previously.
Paes and Black, who lifted the U.S. Open trophy in 2008 in their maiden venture, have been the hottest mixed team in the last six months, making the finals of three successive majors.
