SA, Zim team win Aus Open
2007-01-26 09:06
Melbourne, Australia - Cara Black and Liezel Huber's reunion as a Grand Slam doubles pairing after more than 18 months apart gave the tour veterans their second major title Saturday, beating a wild-card rookie team from Taiwan in the Australian Open final.
Third-seeded Black and Huber, who won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2005 but didn't play together all of last year following a left knee injury to Huber, beat Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1.
The win ended the celebrated run of the young Taiwanese team which made history by becoming the first players from their country to play in a Grand Slam final.
Huber and Black played together for the first time this year in two Australian Open warm-up tournaments at the Gold Coast and Sydney, losing in the semi-finals at each.
With Rod Laver Arena only half-full on Friday and techno music from Australia Day festivities booming into the stadium from a nearby park, Huber and Black broke the Taiwanese pair in the fifth game.
Huber, who had been having trouble with her serve, hit an ace on game point to put her team up 5-3. Two games later, three straight forehand errors by the Taiwanese players gave Black and Huber the first set.
Chan, 17, and Chuang, 22, broke to take a 4-2 lead in the second set, but Black and Huber broke back in the next game, then held to level at 4-4.
Black and Huber broke again in the 11th game, Black hitting a ball between the Taiwanese players from the net, and Black was two points from winning the championship before Taiwan broke yet again, sending the second set to a tiebreaker.
The Taiwanese pair went ahead 3-0 in the tiebreaker and had three set points before winning the second set a point later on Chan's backhand winner.
Black and Huber dominated the final set, winning the title when Chuang netted a backhand from the baseline.
Huber damaged her anterior cruciate ligament in a World Team Tennis match shortly after the pair's win at Wimbledon two years ago, and Black later teamed up with Australian Rennae Stubbs for all of last year.
Huber, a 30-year-old South African who lives in Houston, Texas, and Black, a 27-year-old Zimbabwean, decided to reunite this year. The Australian Open was the team's 20th event together.
Chan and Chuang beat defending champions Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China in the semi-finals. Yan and Zheng won the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles last year.
- AP