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Aussie Peers, Kontinen lose doubles final

Aussie doubles specialist John Peers and partner Henri Kontinen have lost to French pair Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut in the Australian Open final..

AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 14 MAHUT HERBERT

Nicolas Mahut (l) and Pierre-Hugues Herbert celebrate their Australian Open doubles final success. (AAP)

John Peers has been unable to join Samantha Stosur this year as a home-grown winner of an Australian Open doubles title.

Peers and his Finnish partner Henrik Kontinen went down in Sunday's men's final against French duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-4 7-6 (7-1).

Stosur and China's Zhang Shuai teamed up to win the women's doubles crown on Friday afternoon, while local mixed pair Astra Sharma and John-Patrick Smith lost the Australian Open mixed doubles final.

Peers said he felt they were on the back foot from the opening serve.

"We didn't take the chances we had and those guys played really well and that was the difference," Peers said.

"I felt from the word go that those guys were returning well and making a lot of balls.

"We were in an uphill battle all day and we didn't quite get our noses in front when we did have a couple of chances to put the pressure back on them."

There was only one break of serve in the match, with Kontinen broken to hand the French duo a 5-4 lead in the first set. Herbert then held to put them up a set.

The match went with serve in the second set but the French team dominated the tiebreak, establishing a mini-break off Peers' serve for a 3-0 lead. They were never headed.

The win completed a doubles grand slam for Herbert and 37-year-old Mahut, joining an elite group of four pairs in the open era who have achieved the feat.

Peers was gunning to become the first Australian since Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge combined to claim multiple Australian Open men's doubles titles.

Peers and Kontinen had won the Australian Open doubles in 2017.

Peers will now turn his attention to Australia's Davis Cup tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Adelaide next month.


2 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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