MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Elise Mertens marked her return to the No. 1 ranking in women's doubles by combining with China's Zhang Shuai to win the Australian Open title on Saturday.
Back together after four years apart as a team, Mertens and Zhang trailed 3-0 and 4-1 in the first set but rallied to beat Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic 7-6 (4), 6-4. Mertens and Zhang led the final set 5-0 before withstanding a comeback attempt when Danilina and Krunic won four straight games.
Currently ranked No. 6 in doubles, Mertens, who won the Wimbledon doubles title last year with Veronika Kudermetova, will return to the No. 1 ranking after the Australian Open.
That will mark the Belgian player's 40th cumulative week as No. 1 in doubles and was guaranteed regardless of the outcome of the Melbourne Park final Saturday.
The win Saturday was Mertens' sixth Grand Slam doubles title, including 2021 and 2024 at Melbourne Park. Zhang now has three, including the 2019 Australian Open and the 2021 U.S. Open.
It was their first Grand Slam trophy as a team, having lost the 2022 Wimbledon final in their last appearance together.
“This is like cherry on the cake,” Mertens said. “We paired up as a team very last-minute . . . this was our first tournament back together. In the second round we saved three match points, so that kind of took us to another level. An unbelievable two weeks."
Mertens reached the fourth round of women’s singles at Melbourne Park this year before being beaten by eventual finalist Elena Rybakina.
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Zhang says she and Mertens adapt well.
“We know how to play finals, we know how to win finals,” Zhang said. “We are both very calm. If something doesn't work . . . we always adjust.”
In the later men's doubles final, American Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski of Britain were scheduled to play the Australian pair of Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans. Kubler has a 14-3 doubles record at his home major.
Harrison and Skupski, who both competed at last year’s ATP Finals with different partners, joined as a team for the first time in Adelaide earlier this month, where they reached the semifinals.
The mixed doubles final was played on Friday, when Australians Olivia Gadecki and John Peers became the first team to win consecutive titles since 1989 after beating the French pair of Kristina Mladenovic and Manuel Guinard 4-6, 6-3, 10-8.
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