Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Jakub Mensik texted Karolina Muchova on the eve of the US Open mixed doubles tournament so they could co-ordinate their outfits. Looking good on the court is important, he figured.
Now they look like a million bucks.
Muchova and Mensik won the title on Wednesday night (Thursday AEST) in their first time playing together, beating Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Italy’s Flavio Cobolli 6-3 1-6 (10-6) at Flushing Meadows in New York.
The Czech duo, wearing the same pink tops and maroon bottoms they chose on Monday, won match tiebreakers in both matches on the second night of the two-day event, fuelled by Mensik’s powerful serve combined with some good hands near the net. He clinched the final with an ace to earn $US1 million to share with Muchova.
“I think at the end, really the matching outfit made the difference for us,” said Muchova, who made the singles final at Wimbledon this year.
They were on the brink of losing their semi-final, saving two match points and running off the final four to edge Russians Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev 5-4 (6) 3-5 (11-9).
Quite a performance, considering Mensik had never played in a mixed doubles event.
“My first mixed doubles, 100 per cent win rate,” he said.
Bencic and Cobolli rallied to end the run of spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils in the first semi-final with a 4-5 (7-9) 4-1 (10-5) victory.
It was the second year of the new format in mixed doubles, with the event shortened and moved to the week before the singles main draws begin, with the US Tennis Association hoping to encourage top singles players to compete.
