Aussies fight for Mixed finals berth

Both disappointed following first round singles losses, Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden have embraced the rest of the Australian Open and enjoyed success in the Mixed Doubles event, culminating, so far, in today's semi final against the pairing of Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan.

Both teams were unseeded, and the Australians had defeated the second and fifth seeded teams to reach the semi stage.

The first set featured some terrific tennis from both teams with the volley exchanges that crowds love to see leaving none disappointed.  A break apiece for both until the twelfth game when the Australians broke once more to take the important advantage 7-5.

An early break of the Australians in Set 2 caused some worries for spectators but not as much as for Jarmila and Matt, but they stuck at their game plan and held serve staying within range.  At 2-4 concerns arose when Jarmila ran into trouble on serve - another break would have Yaroslava and Denis serving for the set.

The Aussies held firm and turned the pressure back on Yaroslava who served next.  Again she dropped serve and the games were back even.  At 5-5, Jarmila put her team within a game of victory, but Yaroslava served strongly winning every point with help from Denis where necessary, to force a tie break.

Before long, the Australians had raced to a six points to two lead, and despite some loose shots leading to the evaporation of three match points, Jarmila finally put away a winner on the fourth to put the team in the final - the victory 7-5 7-6 (7-5)