Unseeded pair of Mattek-Sands and Safarova claim Aus Open women's doubles title

American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her Czech partner Lucie Safarova won their first grand slam women’s doubles titles at the Australian Open on Friday with a 6-4 7-6(5) victory over China’s Zheng Jie and Taiwan’s partner Chan Yung-jan. The unseeded Mattek-Sands and Safarova beat five seeded pairings to win the title on Rod Laver Arena, the first of the titles to be decided at this year’s Australian Open. [caption id=“attachment_2072051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The unseeded Mattek-Sands and Safarova beat five seeded pairings to win the title. Reuters[/caption] It was also the first time the 29-year-old Mattek-Sands and 27-year-old Safarova had played together in a tournament, and they are the first new pairing to win the women’s doubles title at Melbourne Park since 2005. Mattek-Sands won the mixed doubles title at Melbourne Park with Romania’s Horia Tecau in 2012. The victory makes up for a disappointing singles campaign for Safarova, who entered the season opening grand slam as the 16th seed but lost in the first round to Yaroslava Shvedova. Mattek-Sands made the third round of the singles, losing to third seed Simona Halep. Reuters