Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan (詹詠然) and Paul Hanley of Australia beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US and Romania’s Horia Tecau 2-6, 6-3 (11-9) in Melbourne yesterday to reach the Australian Open mixed doubles final.
However, it was a close call for Chan and Hanley as both duos won exactly the same number of points during the match, 56 each.
Chan and Hanley dropped their serves in the first set but bounced back to inflict the same fate on Mattek-Sands in the fourth game of the second set. The Taiwanese failed to hold her serve in the seventh game but Hanley and Chan immediately broke back, again on the American’s serve, leaving Hanley to serve out the set in the next game
The match then went into a decisive match tiebreak that the Taiwanese-Australian duo won on their first match point.
The unseeded pair will face Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Canada’s Daniel Nestor tomorrow after the second seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Maria Kirilenko and Nenad Zimonjic in the other semi-final.
Chan is looking to become the first-ever Taiwanese winner of a Grand Slam title, having just missed out as a beaten finalist in the women’s doubles at the Australian and US Opens in 2007, where she partnered compatriot Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容).
Chan, ranked 18th in the world in doubles, and Hanley defeated Chuang and Dick Norman of Belgium in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Chan, 21, claimed the Australian Open junior doubles title in 2004 and has won nine WTA doubles titles during her career.
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