Desiree Krawczyk and Joe Salisbury win the French Open mixed doubles title
Desira Portnoy and John Salisbury won the mixed doubles title at the French Open.
The pair rallied from a set down to beat the Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev 2-6 6-4 (10-5) to clinch the title on a sun-bathed Philippe Chatrier court.
Their win ended Britain’s 39-year wait for a title at Roland Garros. The last British player to lift a trophy in the tournament’s five main events was John Lloyd in the mixed doubles in 1982. He played with Wendy Turnbull of Australia.
Both Krawczyk and Salisbury were eliminated in the early stages of the doubles tournament in Paris and turned their focus to the mixed doubles.
The Russians looked in control and broke their opponents’ serve twice in the opening set to take the lead before Krawczyk and Salisbury converted their only breakpoint opportunity late in the second set to take the match into a deciding tie-break.
They carried the momentum into the tie-break and opened up a 4-0 early lead, which was enough in the end.
The match could have taken a controversial turn when chair umpire Carlos Ramos ruled an ace from Salisbury to have landed out on 40-0 in the second set even as the team had taken their seats for the break before the match tie-break.
Salisbury argued that the umpire was mistaken about the mark where the ball landed but to no avail.
Salisbury ended up with a double fault on that point, then lost a second point on serve before finally managing to level the match on the third set point.
Mixed doubles, which features only at the four Grand Slams and is not played on the professional tours, was not played last year at Roland Garros due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
