Abigal Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal lifted their maiden Grand Slam on Sunday.
Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig (R) (Photo: AFP)
Sania Mirza quest for her seventh Major crown ended tamely in the Australian Open mixed doubles final as she and her partner Ivan Dodig went down without much of a fight to the unseeded duo of Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal 2-6, 4-6 in a match that was over in an hour and four minutes.
The match began on an alarming note for the Indo-Croat pair as they lost the first four games and never looked like recovering back in the opening set which lasted just 26 minutes.
The second seeds broke the early in the second set to lead 3-0 at one point before a string comeback from Spears and Cabal levelled the scores at 4-4. In the 9th game, the unseeded duo had three break points and they finally broke through on their second attempt to serve for the championship.
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And they held serve fairly easily to cap of a memorable tournament for the American-Uruguyan duo, who after beating seventh seeds Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in the first round, were meeting a seeded duo for the first time.
A crazy final set and as Mirza and Dodig faded, their opponents took advantage to lift their maiden Grand Slam title.
It was Sania's second Australian Open mixed doubles final after winning in 2009 with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.
Prior to Sunday's final, she won three mixed doubles titles, the last being the 2014 US Open with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
The 30-year-old Hyderabadi has six major titles in her kitty, three in mixed doubles and three in women's doubles.
The Indo-Croatian pair played their second Grand Slam final, having lost the French Open final to the experienced pair of Leander Paes and Martina Hingis in 2016.
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