The number 6 seeds, the British Neal Skupski and the American Christian Harrison, defeated the Australians Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans by 2 sets to 0 (7-6(4) and 6-4) to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title, this Saturday (31).
Interestingly, it was the duo’s first participation in a . Furthermore, victory in front of a fervent Australian crowd gave Harrison his first Grand Slam title. For Skupski, it was his fourth title combining men’s doubles and mixed doubles, but his first outside Wimbledon.
With the roof of the Rod Laver Arena closed due to rain, the match started at a fast pace, with Harrison and Skupski taking an early 4-2 lead, before Kubler and Polmans fought back with strong support from the home crowd to level the set.
They forced a tense tie-break, which the British-American pair narrowly won with a powerful strike from Skupski. In the second set, Harrison and Skupski broke serve early on and maintained the advantage, despite the determined reaction of the Australian pair.
Despite seeing two match points saved by the determined Australian duo, the British-American duo ended up securing the title on the third match point, when Harrison hit a decisive ace in the middle of the court.
