India’s Leander Paes completed a career mixed-doubles Grand Slam on Thursday, joining Zimbabwe’s Cara Black to beat Britain’s Jamie Murray and American Liezel Huber 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 in the US Open final.
The 97-minute victory for the first-time Slam pairing follows mixed titles for Paes at the 1999 French Open and Wimbledon with American Lisa Raymond and the 2003 Wimbledon and Australian Opens with US star Martina Navratilova.
“It was in the back of my mind that I hadn’t won this one,” Paes said. “I woke up this morning with a purpose. I woke up really fired up.”
“The key part is selecting a good partner,” Paes said. “I let Cara do all the work and I just stood back and enjoyed it.”
Murray, the elder brother of US Open singles semi-finalist Andy Murray, won last year’s Wimbledon mixed doubles crown with Serbian star Jelena Jankovic but lost to a Paes pair for the second US Open in a row, bowing in the semis lat year.
“I was looking for a bit of revenge but it didn’t happen,” Murray said.
Paes and Black won six of the last seven points to take the first set, denying set points on a Black scoop volley winner and when Murray netted a forehand volley.
Black fired a service winner to give her and Paes a set point and the Indian star poached a backhand volley smash to win the set.
“It was amazing to pull that set out,” Black said. “It gave us a great lift.”
Paes and Black broke Murray in the fifth game of the second set, then held to the finish for the US$150,000 top prize.
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