Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai win the Australian Open women’s doubles title
Pair rally from 4-1 down in first set to beat Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic, as first-time duo win men’s title
Elise Mertens marked her return to the No 1 ranking in women’s doubles by combining with China’s Zhang Shuai to win the Australian Open title on Saturday.
Mertens and Zhang trailed 3-0 and 4-1 in the first set but rallied to beat Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic 7-6, 6-4. Mertens and Zhang led the final set 5-0 before withstanding a comeback attempt when Danilina and Krunic won four straight games.
Currently ranked No 6 in doubles, Mertens, who won the Wimbledon doubles title last year with Veronika Kudermetova, will return to the top spot on Monday.
That will mark the Belgian player’s 40th cumulative week as No 1 in doubles and was guaranteed regardless of the outcome of the Melbourne Park final on Saturday.
The win was Mertens’ sixth grand slam doubles title, including 2021 and 2024 at Melbourne Park. Zhang now has three, including the 2019 Australian Open and the 2021 US Open.
In the men’s doubles final, sixth seeds Neal Skupski and Christian Harrison defeated Australia’s wild card pairing of Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans 7-6, 6-4 to capture the title in their first grand slam event as a team.