American Abigail Spears and Columbian Juan Sebastian Cabal became on Sunday the winners of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open after defeating in the finals the Indian-Croatian pair Sania Mirza-Ivan Dodig 6-2, 6-3 in 63 minutes
Mirza and Dodig did not start the duel well. With two breaks the American-Columbian pair took the lead 4-0 and in only 26 minutes won the first set with 6-2, Jutarnji List reported on January 29, 2017.
In the second set the Indian-Croatian combination returned with a break for 2-0. Unfortunately, at 4-2 Mirza lost her serve, while Dodig did the same two games later with three double faults in one game. Juan Sebastian Cabal did not miss out on the opportunity, so after 63 minutes the American and Columbian won their first Grand Slam title and earned 150.500 Australian dollars, while Mirza and Dodig will share 75.500.
This is the second such loss in the finals for the 30-year-old Indian and 32-year-old Croat, after being defeated in Paris last year at the Roland Garros by Swiss Martina Hingis and Indian Leander Paes. Dodig has one Grand Slam title in men’s doubles from 2015, while Sania Mirza has six titles, three in women’s doubles and three in mixed.
Ivan Dodig attempted to become the third Croatian tennis player with a Grand Slam in mixed doubles, the first being Dragutin Mitić with Frenchwoman Simone Mathieu at Roland Garros in 1938, and the second Mate Pavić with German Laura Siegmund last year in the US Open.
