MELBOURNE: Wildcards John Peers and Olivia Gadecki were crowned Australian Open mixed doubles champions on Friday, outlasting fellow Australians Kimberly Birrell and John-Patrick Smith.
Peers and Gadecki came through 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 in the first all-Australian final at the opening Grand Slam of the year since 1967. It was a first Slam title for Gadecki and the third for Peers, who claimed the men´s doubles at Melbourne Park in 2017 and the mixed doubles at the 2022 US Open. “You were class today,” Peers said of Birrell and Smith. “It was a great effort and we got a bit of luck at the end.”