Timea Babos, Kristina Mladenovic win Australian Open women's doubles

Reuters

Hungarian Timea Babos and France’s Kristina Mladenovic defeated Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-3 to win the women’s doubles title at the Australian Open on Friday.

Babos and Mladenovic claimed their first grand slam title as a partnership, denying the Olympic champion Russians a sweep of grand slam doubles crowns at Rod Laver Arena.

The win was Mladenovic’s second major women’s doubles title after she won the 2016 French Open crown with compatriot Caroline Garcia.

The Russians pushed hard to prise break points from Mladenovic as she served out the match but the French-Hungarian duo held firm to close out the match in one hour and 20 minutes.