http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23118459-3162,00.html
Tiantian Sun and Nenad Zimonjic take out mixed doubles
January 28, 2008 12:00am
CHINA'S Tiantian Sun and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic have a former Australian star
to thank for their mixed doubles championship win yesterday.
Retired Australian Sandon Stolle was responsible for pairing Sun and Zimonjic,
who beat Indian duo Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the final
in 1hr 21min at Rod Laver Arena.
Stolle, a former US Open doubles champion, had been Sun's coach on the women's
tour for 12 months.
He had also been a coach at the Chinese Tennis Federation before returning to
Australia as Australian Institute of Sport head coach late last year.
"We are good friends and I asked him if he knew anyone who might be
interested," Zimonjic said of Stolle.
"He asked a few (of the Chinese players) and Tiantian responded . . . it is the
first time we've played together and I think we both enjoyed it."
The victory gave Sun her first grand slam victory and Zimonjic his second. The
Serb also won the 2004 Australian Open mixed doubles title.
The pair are likely to team up in the Wimbledon mixed doubles, but may go their
separate ways after that.
Zimonjic said he had agreed to play the US and French Open with regular partner
Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.
Srebotnik did not play in the mixed doubles at Melbourne Park, preferring to
concentrate on the singles.
Sun and Zimonjic started yesterday's final with an early break. But Zimonjic's
serve was broken soon after, with the set eventually going to a tie-break,
which the fifth seeds won.
The pair then broke Bhupathi in his opening service game of the second set.
The Indians saved three championship points on Bhupathi's serve in the ninth
game, before Zimonjic served out the set.
Zimonjic's success continued Serbia's amazing run at the Open.
He is one of four Serbians to make at least the semi-finals at the tournament.
Novak Djokovic, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic are also from Serbia.
- AAP
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