Indian tennis star Leander Paes clinched his 15th Grand Slam title when he and Swiss ace Martina Hingis won the Australian Open mixed-doubles title in Melbourne on Sunday.
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The seventh seeded Indo-Swiss pair turned back the clock to serve past third seeds Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-3 in 62 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena.
While the 41-year-old Paes clinched his seventh mixed doubles crown, Hingis, who came out of retirement for the second time a couple of years back, collected her 11thdoubles Slam apart from her five singles titles.
Paes-Hingis broke the Canadian-French pair of Nestor-Kristina once in the first set and twice in the second in an entertaining display.
The veteran Indian doubles specialist joined forces with the 34-year-old Hingis last year only to come up with a Slam title in quick time.
Hingis, who burst on the scene in 1995, thanked her idol and legend Martina Navratilova for suggesting Paes as her mixed-doubles partner.
"I am thankful to Martina (Navratilova) for getting me to partner Paes. Not even in my wildest dreams would I have believed that 20 years later I'd be standing here again," said an excited Hingis, a winner of three singles Australian Open titles in 1997, 98 and 99.
Navratilova, who partnered Paes to clinch the Australian Open and Wimbledon mixed-doubles crown in 2003, was in the stands to watch the tennis veterans play in the final.
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