Storm Sanders and John Peers won a nail-biting semifinal at the US Open to advance to their first Grand Slam mixed doubles final.
New York, USA, 9 September 2022 | Matt Trollope
Storm Sanders and John Peers won a nail-biting semifinal at the US Open on Friday to advance to their first Grand Slam mixed doubles final.
The all-Aussie pairing beat American wildcards Caty McNally and William Blumberg 6-2 6-7(5) [10-8] to advance to their first Grand Slam mixed doubles final – both individually, and as a pair.
It continues a brilliant US Open for Sanders, who on Saturday will also play for a place in the women’s doubles final, alongside Caroline Dolehide.
Sanders and Peers will take on Belgian Kirsten Flipkens and France’s Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the final.
They started brilliantly at Louis Armstrong Stadium, combining crisply and breaking en route to a 4-1 lead, before another service break secured them the first set.
But it was a tighter affair in the second, with McNally and Blumberg scoring their first break of the match thanks to a Blumberg volley winner.
Sanders and Peers broke back immediately and the set remained tightly contested all the way to a tiebreak.
The Australians fell behind 0-4 but won five points in a row, and had a golden opportunity to arrive at match point – only for Sanders to send a volley into the net.
Having escaped, McNally and Blumberg played inspired tennis to arrive at set point, and converted when Peers found the net with his own volley.
And so the match went into another tiebreak, this time the 10-point match variety – which Sanders and Peers dominated early.
But their 4-0 lead soon evaporated when the Americans won eight of the next 10 points to take an 8-6 lead.
Impressively, they did not panic, and won the next three consecutive points – the third on a McNally double fault.
Having finally arrived at their first match point, Peers stepped up to the line and delivered an unreturnable serve to send the Aussies into the title match.
More to follow…
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