Bonus Mixed Doubles

Due to the length of matches today, or lack thereof, a mixed doubles match was moved into Rod Laver Arena for our viewing delight. The exponents of the doubles art in this contest were on one side of the net Australians Casey Dellacqua and Matthew Ebden (the ones we had been advised to support) and on the other side of the same net American Lisa Raymond and Indian Rohan Bopanna. The latter pairing constituted the fourth seeding.

Lisa and Rohan discuss restaurant preferences ?

Lisa has played women's and mixed doubles with a number of different partners, including long stints with Australians Rennae Stubbs and Samantha Stosur - that has been to the benefit of the partnerships formed. She is one of the true doubles legends.

And of course after lavishing her with compliments, the first three games saw one break of serve and that was the Lisa Raymond model. Aussies up by 2-1, and playing well as a team so far. Both teams settled and serve became easier to hold so when Casey was brought on to serve at the VIP end, her team had a 4-3 lead. The Aussie is the reigning Mixed Doubles champion from Roland Garros, and as soon as I build up her credentials she loses her serve - 4-4 in the first innings, sorry half, I mean set.

The rot set in for the Australians - they had deuce on the Bopanna serve which if they'd won the point would have given them the break (mixed doubles rule - deuce brings up deciding point)
Bopanna and Raymond held then broke the serve of Ebden to take the set 6-4.

The seeded team lived up to the seeding as they controlled the course of the second set. Two breaks of serve separated the teams and Lisa and Rohan won the day 6-4 6-2. A clear cut victory but plenty of colourful exchanges between all four players which is a major prerequisite for doubles entertainment.