Herbert/Mahut Complete Career Grand Slam With Australian Open Title

Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut became the eighth men's doubles team in the sport’s history to complete the Career Grand Slam of all four major championship crowns on Sunday afternoon by clinching their first Australian Open trophy.

The fifth-seeded Frenchmen defeated No. 12 seeds and 2017 champions Kontinen and Peers 6-4, 7-6(1) in one hour and 38 minutes to add to their 2015 US Open, 2016 Wimbledon and 2018 Roland Garros titles. The tandem hit 14 winners to 25 for Kontinen and Peers, but their greater consistency on serve proved to be the difference on Rod Laver Arena.

Herbert and Mahut became the first team to complete the Career Grand Slam since Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan completed their set of major titles at Wimbledon in July 2006. The 2019 champions are also the second all-French pair in the Open Era (since April 1968) to lift the Australian Open trophy, following in the footsteps of Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro.

Kontinen and Peers both saved three break points in their first service games, but the pressure mounted and successive groundstroke winners helped Herbert and Mahut break Kontinen’s serve for a 5-4 advantage.

Herbert saved four break points at 1-2 in the second set, before Peers saved two break points — courtesy of two backhand errors — in a 16-point game. Three successive errors from Kontinen and Peers at the start of the tie-break, gave Herbert and Mahut the upper hand en route to an historic victory. The two teams are now tie 2-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

Rod Laver and Roy Emerson, the only two players in the sport’s history to capture all four major singles championships twice, presented the trophies on the main stadium at Melbourne Park. Afterwards, Novak Djokovic, who is attempting to make history today against Rafael Nadal by lifting a record seventh Australian Open singles crown, came out onto court to congratulate Herbert and Mahut.

from Tennis - ATP World Tour http://bit.ly/2RiXUK6