adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
ZIMBABWE women’s tennis legend Cara Black quickly recovered from the disappointment of being knocked out in the opening round of the women’s doubles at this year’s Australian Open by reaching the second round of the mixed doubles competition of the same event in Melbourne yesterday.
Black and her new women’s doubles partner Saisai Zheng of China on Wednesday fell at the first hurdle in Melbourne when they went down in straight sets to Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Poland’s Alicja Rosolska, who beat them 6-1, 6-4.
Both teams were unseeded.
And after her early exit from the women’s doubles on Wednesday, Black yesterday combined forces with Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal in the opening round of the mixed doubles where they met the unseeded pair of Chinese Taipei’s Yung-Jan Chan and Marin Draganja of Croatia.
And the fifth-seeded duo of Black and Cabal was stretched to the limit by their opponents before they finally prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 10-6 to pull through to the second round of the mixed doubles, according to reports from Melbourne yesterday.
In the second round of the mixed doubles, Black and Cabal will meet either the pair of American Lisa Raymond and Swede Robert Lindestedt or the duo of Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova and Colombian Robert Farah. Both teams are unseeded at the first Grand Slam of the year.
Black is a former winner of the mixed doubles title at the Australian Open, winning it with Indian men’s tennis legend Leander Paes in 2010.
Top seeds Black and Paes won the mixed doubles title at the 2010 Australian Open, defeating Ekaterina Makarova and Jaroslav Levinský 7–5, 6–3 in the final.
Online Reporter