Australians Storm Sanders and John Peers have completed a dream fortnight in their first tournament as a team, winning the mixed doubles title at the US Open.
New York, USA, 11 September 2022 | Matt Trollope
With an ace down the T, John Peers and Storm Sanders captured their first Grand Slam mixed doubles title at the US Open.
The Australian pairing defeated Belgian Kirsten Flipkens and France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6 6-4 [10-7] to complete a magnificent fortnight in New York.
This was Sanders’ and Peers’ first tournament together, and after a slow start they grew in confidence before ending the match with a flourish in the match tiebreak.
Sanders brought up championship point with a lunging volley winner, before Peers cemented victory with the aforementioned ace.
It is Peers’ first Grand Slam mixed doubles title and second overall, after his men’s doubles triumph at Australian Open 2017.
And it was Sanders’ first Grand Slam final of any kind, adding significance to this breakthrough triumph at Flushing Meadows.
“I can’t believe we’re Grand Slam champions, that’s crazy!” Sanders said to Peers during the trophy presentation.
Flipkens and Roger-Vasselin started the stronger of the two teams before a notable crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, who filled most of the lower bowl, and some sections of the higher bowls, to add extra atmosphere to this Grand Slam decider.
Dominant on serve and more cohesive at net, they took a one-set lead after 36 minutes, committing just two unforced errors as a pair to the Aussies’ seven.
But Sanders and Peers worked their way into the final, and were giving the Belgian-French duo a tougher time on serve.
In the seventh game, they recovered from 40-15 down to force deuce, which in major mixed doubles matches means a sudden-death point.
And while they could not convert that break-point chance, they did two games later; Peers split his opponents down the middle with a winning volley for 15-30, and then Roger-Vasselin double-faulted.
It meant two more break points, and this time, two set points; on the second, Peers fired a return winner to send the final to a match tiebreak.
Here, the Aussies leapt ahead 4-1 before the tiebreak tightened.
And as the tension mounted, the quality rose.
After a double fault, Peers rebounded with a winning overhead to put the Aussies ahead 5-4, and later played another return winner for an 8-6 lead.
Roger-Vasselin then played a drop volley…
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