Delayed Retirement Gives Mixed Pair A Double Return
The Age
Monday January 29, 2007
MIXED doubles pair Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva became Australian Open champions yesterday after comfortably defeating Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, 6-4, 6-4.
They will take home $137,460 in prizemoney, double the spoils of last year's Open, when they were defeated by Martina Hingis and Mahesh Bhupathi in the final.Nestor said he was pleased his Russian partner hadn't retired at the end of 2006, as she had originally intended."I have been on the tour for a long time and I just decided that I should start doing something different, but then I thought that if I still enjoyed it ... I should maybe go on another year," Likhovtseva said."I hope we continue playing (together) the whole year ... We didn't sign anything, but I don't know. There are only four grand slams, so hopefully we will."Nestor said the pairing of veteran doubles player Mirnyi, who has 32 career doubles titles with 12 different partners, and 17-year-old Azarenka had warranted a clear game plan."We played a tough team. They seemed to be winning all of their matches pretty easily and we were a bit worried about that," he said.But the Canadian said Azarenka's inexperience "showed a little bit" when she made "a couple of loose errors" at the net."Max was aggressive, but I think he's played better matches. His serve wasn't as big as some other times I've played him in the past. "I think we capitalised on our opportunities and it worked out."I think that the fact that Elena plays really well from the baseline and I play well from the net is a good combination for us."Nestor and Likhovtseva had a much higher first-serve percentage than their wildcard opponents, with a combined figure of 71 per cent, compared with Mirnyi and Azarenka's 52 per cent.The Canadian and Russian pair won 86 per cent of their first serve points, compared with their opponents' 79 per cent.
© 2007 The Age