No. 2 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova won their second Australian Open title together by beating No. 12 seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai 6(4)-7, 6-3, 6-3. This marks their fourth Grand Slam tournament victory as a team.
#teambucie DANCE with @shauntfitness @matteksands #wta #ausopen #fitness #fun pic.twitter.com/LHYJmjBJXg
— lucie safarova (@luciesafarova) January 24, 2017
It was not a strong start for the eventual champions, as Safarova lost her serve in the very first game after, while down 15-40, Mattek-Sands missed a volley wide. Peng then consolidated by holding her own serve at love.
#TeamBucie were able to get back into the set, though, when two double faults from Hlavackova allowed them to break at love for 4-4.
This caused the frame to go to a tiebreak, in which Mattek-Sands and Safarova went down 1-3 when the former missed a backhand volley into the net. Hlavackova and Peng then took a 6-3 lead when Hlavackova crushed forehand winner down the right alley. Mattek-Sands fought back with a lob winner, but Hlavackova was still able to secure the 7-4 win on a backhand volley.
Not ready to surrender, #TeamBucie came back firing in the second set, getting an immediate 0-40 lead on Peng’s serve. Their opponents won three straight points to make it deuce, but Mattek-Sands slammed an overhead and hit a half-volley winner to steal the early break.
Safarova then held and broke once again, this time on Hlavackova’s serve, to go up 3-0.
However, Peng and Hlavackova minimized the damage by breaking Mattek-Sands right afterward.
Later, when Hlavackova was serving down 2-4, Safarova and Mattek-Sands had three break points, converting on the third for 5-2.
Hlavackova and Peng prolonged the set by breaking Mattek-Sands for a second time, but #TeamBucie wound up winning the set on Peng’s next service game when Safarova hit a backhand return winner down the line.
Safarova and Mattek-Sands pulled ahead for 3-1 in the deciding third set on a Hlavackova double fault.
The No. 12 seeds then had three break-back points, but the favourites found a way to come out on top and expand their lead to 4-1.
Peng’s team next fought off three break points to make it 2-4, but it didn’t matter because time was running out. Three consecutive holds followed, and Mattek-Sands and Safarova won the set 6-3.
“It’s getting too heavy here,” Safarova said as she attempted to hold her massive trophy while Mattek-Sands’s gave the team’s acceptance speech.
The mixed doubles final will be contested on Sunday between No. 2 seeds Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig (who won their semifinal in a 10-5 super tiebreak over the all-Aussie team of Sam Stosur and Sam Groth) and non-seeds Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal.
