Australian Open: Kristina Mladenovic, Ivan Dodig win mixed doubles title

Kristina
Mladenovic of France won her second Australian Open mixed doubles title
partnering Ivan Dodig of Croatia. The French-Croat pair defeated Australian
players Jaimee Fourlis and Jason Kubler 6-3, 6-4 at Melbourne Park on Friday.

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Mladenovic
and Dodig took home the first of the five trophies available for grab at the
Australian Open.

This is,
meanwhile, the first major mixed doubles crown for Mladenovic in eight years.
She and Canada’s Daniel Nestor reached consecutive finals Down Under in 2014 and
2015, winning the former, and the duo also won Wimbledon in 2013. Mladenovic
now boasts eight total Grand Slam titles across women’s and mixed doubles.

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“I
love to have that feeling to reach the end of the tournament,” she added.
“It’s an event where I particularly like, where I had success.”You
come on the last day and you have always this adrenaline and pressure. Finals
is to win. You don’t want to end up losing just on the very last step.”

Mladenovic
and Dodig took 78 minutes to clinch the title.

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“Ivan
is an amazing player all around the court, not just doubles skills, but
singles. He had an amazing career, too. He has so much experience. I think he’s
a player very accomplished with that all around the court, his strokes,”
Mladenovic added after winning her second Australian Open mixed doubles title.

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“His
experience for sure helps. I’m a little bit younger and I have also this much
experience. Like I said, I played couple of finals. But I also think we match
perfectly because I prefer to play on the deuce end, he’s on the ad side.
Tennis-wise it’s just great. We complement each other really well.

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“What’s
the most important as well is off the court we really have the values and
spirit. We have great energy with all our team. I think it makes a big difference
at the end of the day. I think we have that same mentality, so it’s nice to be
on court together.”