MELBOURNE: Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic won their second Australian Open women’s doubles crown in three years yesterday, beating top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova 6-2 6-1.
Second seeded Babos and Mladenovic, who lost to Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai last year, claimed their third Grand Slam doubles crown as a pair, having won last year’s French Open.
France’s Mladenovic, who won the 2016 French Open with compatriot Caroline Garcia, brought her Grand Slam doubles tally to four titles, one more than her Hungarian partner Babos.
“It’s obviously always a tough warm-up to go out there and play another final. I think we’re just handling it better and better each time we go on court for such a special moment, for these special matches,” Babos said.
“We had great memories from last time we played them, that’s for sure.”