Mladenovic and Nestor Collide Again

French hope Kristina Mladenovic and Canadian veteran Daniel Nestor teamed up again at this year's Australian Open to conquer their second Grand Slam mixed-doubles title together. The popular tandem cruised through the draw to collect their second major crown after Wimbledon last year.

Although they were not seeded at the start of the tournament, Mladenovic and Nestor enjoyed a relatively easy ride Down Under going all the way without dropping a set. They beat  the likes of Su-Wei Hsieh and Raven Klaasen, Lisa Raymond and Mariusz Fyrstenberg, Daniela Hantuchova and Leander Paes, Jie Zheng and Scott Lipsky, respectively Sania Mirza and Horia Tecau in the final.

After the final, the experienced doubles specialist was very complimentary of his partner: "She's very good at returning the men's serve," Nestor confessed. "I'm sure a lot of girls aren't afraid to return the men's serve out there, but whether they're able to do it is another story." "The first thing is not to be afraid of returning the men's serve, because obviously it's going really fast," Mladenovic commented. "And the second thing is that I like the challenge. I like going for it and trying to return it. They get crazy when the return comes back or even comes back as a winner."

The pairing is having great fun both on and off the court. Kristina actually confessed she'd been approached by other players and asked to play with them. "Now that we're starting to get good results, a few players are asking me when he's going to retire! I tell them no, I'm playing with Danny forever now," Kiki assured Daniel. "They say, 'Okay, we can play once he stops. We hope it's going to be soon.' Pretty much all the teams we beat joke about it!"

I love this dynamic duo, and now that the Canadian has announced his big plans of sweeping the majors to achieve the Grand Slam this year, I totally cheer for them! You go guys! 

Kiki Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor are strengthening their credentials as the best mixed-doubles team of the moment by winning their second major crown at the Australian Open. They beat Indian Sania Mirza and Romanian Horia Tecau in the final.

photos: GETTY IMAGES

Tecau Fulfils the Romanian Dream

After the retirement of Andrei Pavel and the struggles and poor form Victor Hanescu has been passing lately, Romania's only hope of crowning a local champion in Bucharest rested on Horia Tecau's shoulders. Tecau, who alongside Swede Robert Linstedt forms one of the hottest doubles teams on the ATP tour, has been in ominous form this season. He started the year superbly by collecting his first Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open, where he teamed-up with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands for the mixed-doubles title. Nevertheless, his past experiences in Bucharest did not leave up to the expectations. In all his previous participations, he has never passed the quarterfinals. This also happened last year, when he and Linstedt were top seeds. 

Horia was determined to turn his faith around though in 2012 and after some excruciating wins earlier in the week, he finally saw his dream come true. The toughest challenge came in the semifinals, when the Swedish-Romanian duo had to recover from a 5-7,0-3 deficit against Australians Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr to ultimately secure their berth in the final. In the grand finale, Tecau and Linstedt sealed a 7-6,6-3 victory over Jeremy Chardy and Lukasz Kubot, making Tecau the first Romanian winner on home soil since Andrei Pavel and Gabriel Trifu collected the doubles title in 1996. The Romanian was delighted by the triumph which makes this day one of the most beautiful of his life.

Tecau and Linstedt have now won seven titles together, but for the Romanian this surely is the sweetest triumph of them all.

photos: Raed Krishan