Canadian veteran Daniel Nestor and Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic have combined for their second grand slam mixed doubles title, trouncing Horia Tecau and Sania Mirza in the Australian Open final.
Nestor and Mladenovic successfully targeted Mirza, with the Indian dropping her last three service games in the 6-3 6-2 victory which lasted only 58 minutes.
The pair also won last year’s Wimbledon mixed doubles title.
For 41-year-old Nestor, it was a third mixed doubles triumph at Melbourne Park, all coming with different partners.
Mladenovic, 20, is also an accomplished singles player, reaching a career-high ranking of 36 last August.
She lost a tight two-setter to Swiss Stefanie Voegele in the opening round of the singles at Melbourne Park, but made amends in the mixed tournament.
Nestor praised Mladenovic as the foremost women’s mixed doubles player on the circuit, claiming that the other men were forever trying to entice her to play with them.
“She is the best mixed doubles player,” said Nestor.
“She helps me out a lot on the court.”
The evergreen Canadian also reached the men’s doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open this year with Nenad Zimonjic.
“I always tell my friends my best chance of winning grand slams nowadays are in mixed,” said Nestor, who has won eight major doubles titles in a 25-year career.
“But obviously I’d still like to win men’s doubles titles, too. I think I have a good partner in that, too.
“I just think this is the best chance, but I’ll keep playing both and hopefully good will come out of it.”
Nestor’s victory rounded out a successful Open for Canada, with rising teen star Eugenie Bouchard advancing to the semi-finals of the women’s singles before losing to eventual champion Li Na.
Tecau, from Romania, had won the 2012 Australian mixed title with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
“Horia is a very good player, very solid player,” said Nestor.
“But there’s things he doesn’t like to do as well. I think we did a good job of returning his serve, putting some pressure on him.
“Maybe he lost a little bit of confidence.
“He probably didn’t return as well as he normally does today.”