Melbourne: The last couple of times they
reached a Grand Slam final, Leander Paes and Cara Black ended
up on the losing side and the pair will aim to break that jinx
in the Australian Open mixed doubles summit clash here
tomorrow.
The 36-year-old Paes will equal the record for the most
Grand Slam title wins by an Indian if he and Black manage to
lift the title, which would be their second together and Paes'
fifth overall.
A triumph tomorrow will take Paes' Grand Slam tally to
11, equalling the number of titles won by one-time doubles'
partner Mahesh Bhupathi.
The top-seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair is up against 10th
seeds Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Jaroslav Levinsky of
Czechoslovakia tomorrow and start favourites given their
wealth of experience.
Paes and the 30-year-old Black had made back-to-back
Grand Slam finals -- Wimbledon and the US Open -- last season
but faltered at the finishing line in both the events.
The last time the duo won a mixed doubles' title was the
2008 US Open.
Paes has been a former mixed doubles' champions at
Melbourne Park and that triumph came in 2003 when he was
partnering American legend Martina Navratilova.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, January 30, 2010, 13:45