China's Zhang and Mertens win Australian Open women's doubles title

MELBOURNE, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhang Shuai won her third Grand Slam women's doubles title after combining with Elise Mertens to beat seventh seeds Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic in the Australian Open final on Saturday.

The fourth seeds overcame a slow start and some late nerves to prevail 7-6 (4), 6-4 in one hour and 48 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.

It is the first major title for the pairing of Belgium's Mertens and Zhang, who were runners-up at Wimbledon in 2022.

Zhang, a former No. 2 ranked doubles player, had previously won the 2019 Australian Open and the 2021 US Open alongside Australian Samantha Stosur.

It was a disappointment for Danilina and Krunic, who were runners-up at last year's French Open.

The Kazakh-Serb pairing made a fast start with Zhang broken in the opening game and Mertens also unable to hold shortly after.

After a sluggish start, Zhang and Mertens found their rhythm and stormed back into the contest but could not convert two set points in the 12th game.

They regrouped to dominate the tiebreak and the momentum continued to lead 5-0 in the second set.

But nerves set in and they could not convert two match points in the eighth game before Zhang finally hit a backhand winner to seal the result. ■