Australian Open: Elise Mertens, Aryna Sabalenka win women's doubles crown

Second-seeded pair Elise Mertens of Belgium and Aryna Sabalenka of Bulgaria beat Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-3 to win the women's doubles title of the Australian Open on Friday. This is the second Grand Slam title for the pair, having earlier won the 2019 US Open.

The last game went on for eight minutes as Elise and Aryana dropped three championship points. The former earned a fourth championship point with an ace and then won the title after a backhand from Katerina went wide at the Rod Laver Arena.

Both players had reached the fourth round of the singles event at the Australian Open. While Mertens lost to Czech Karolina Muchova, Sabalenka lost to 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.

Elise and Aryana had earlier beaten Nicole Melichar and Demi Schuurs in a hard-fought semi-final match. The second seeds won the match 7-5 6-4 in an hour and 36 minutes.

They are unlikely to play anymore doubles matches this season as Aryna, who is in the top 10 of the singles rankings, has chosen to not play doubles this year.

--IANS

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