France's Kristina Mladenovic and Croatia's Ivan Dodig were delegated the primary bosses of the 2022 Australian Open, beating Aussies Jaimee Fourlis and Jason Kubler in the blended duplicates last.
For the second time in her career, Kristina Mladenovic is the Australian Open mixed doubles champion.
France's former Top 10 player took home the first of the five trophies to be awarded this championship weekend in Melbourne, partnering Ivan Dodig to a 6-3, 6-4 win over Aussie wildcards Jaimee Fourlis and Jason Kubler in Friday's championship.
The win is Mladenovic's first mixed major crown in eight years, her third overall and second in Australia. 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.
How the trophy was won: The eventual champions largely cruised in the 78-minute final, which was a far cry from their previous matches to get there. Dodig and Mladenovic were stretched to a match tiebreak in three of the four matches in the earlier rounds, and notably rallied from a set down to defeat No.2 seeds Zhang Shuai and John Peers in the semifinals, 1-6, 7-5, 10-2.
To their credit, Fourlis and Kubler were the third wildcard team to reach the mixed doubles championship in Melbourne in the past four years. They too had a thrilling path to the championship. In the opening round, they beat No.7 seeds Nina Stojanovic and Mate Pavic, 3-6, 6-3, 17-15, saving two match points in the match tiebreak and winning on their eighth, and also saved four match points against 2021 finalists Samantha Stosur and John Peers in the second round, 3-6, 7-5, 11-9.
Fourlis and Kubler were the first team to break serve in the first set for a 2-1 lead, but never again led in the set. Dodig and Mladenovic immediately broke back and won five of six games to pocket the opener, and pulled away late in the second. After the two teams traded early breaks, Dodig and Mladenovic won three of the last four games, and capped victory by winning one of the points of the match.