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The Indo-Swiss pair of Leander Paes and Martina Hingis added yet another feather to their caps as they took the US Open mixed doubles title at Flushing Meadows yesterday. The fourth seeds beat the all-American pair of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 as they took their third Grand Slam win of the year, following title wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
They are the first team in nearly 50 years to win 3 slams in a calendar year, a feat that last occurred in 1969 with the Australian-American team of Margaret Court and Marty Riessen.
The victory takes Paes’ tally of Grand Slam titles to 9, making him the most successful mixed doubles player in the Open Era. In 2013, at 40 years of age, the Kolkata native also became the oldest player in the Open Era.
His partner Hingis will look to take a second doubles title at the Open tonight as she takes on the pair of Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova with another Indian partner – Sania Mirza. The World No. 1 doubles pair of Mirza and Hingis took the title at Wimbledon earlier this year and will look to repeat that feat. Hingis was part of both the doubles and mixed doubles victories, and is on course to do this a second time.
Hingis has found immense success from early on in her tennis career. The former singles World No. 1, who won her first Grand Slam at 16, is at the top of the women’s doubles rankings 18 years later and enjoying a resurgence of her stellar form.
