It’s rare in doubles for four players from the same country to play in a grand slam final.
The last time it happened was in 2016 at Wimbledon when Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut defeated Julien Benneteau and Édouard Roger-Vasselin for the title, 6-4 7-6(1) 6-3.
In the mixed doubles at the Australian Open, the last time four Australians contested the final was in 1967, when defending champions Tony Roche and Judy Tegart were usurped 9-7, 6-4 by Owen Davidson and Lesley Turner.
This year’s Australian Open also offered an all Aussie quartet of mixed doubles finalists: Kimberly Birrell and John-Patrick Smith v. Olivia Gadecki and John Peers.
Even more remarkable was the fact that both teams were wild card entrants yet – in a nod to the wild card selectors – made the final.
Gadecki has for several years been mentored by Ash Barty. Last year she had her best singles result in making the final of the Guadalajara WTA 500, where she went down to Magdalena Fręch, 7–6(5) 6–4.
Her partner Peers was by far the most accomplished player in the final. A doubles specialist, he won the mixed at the US Open in 2022 with Australian Storm Hunter, and with Finnish player Henri Kontinen he won the 2017 Australian Open men’s doubles.
Of course, together with Matthew Ebden, Peers won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Birrell reached her singles peak of 99 in the world this month and has a current doubles ranking of 232. The third round of the Australian Open in women’s doubles this year was the furthest she had ever gone in a slam, until this run to the final of the mixed with Smith. Along the way they knocked off a couple of seeded teams.
Smith had made the mixed doubles final in Melbourne six years ago, with compatriot Astra Sharma, losing to Barbora Krejčíková and Rajeev Ram, 6-7(3) 1-6.
In today’s crowd, he and Birrell were supported by a clique of orange clad University of Tennessee tennis folk. Smith studied there 2007-2011 and did well academically, winning a post-graduate scholarship. He was also the college’s No. 1 tennis player in both singles and doubles and was twice voted the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year.
The final was high standard doubles, with the women leading the way.
Peers was broken in the second game as Birrell was on fire. She held serve for her team to go 3-0. It was up to Gadecki to get her team on the scoreboard and she did, holding to love.
As the score stretched out to 4-1 for Birrell and Smith, Peers held his next serve. Soon Gadecki held for 3-6 but she and Peers lost the first set 4-6.
They started much better in the second set and progressed to 5-4, when they broke Smith’s serve for a 6-4 set.
A ten point Match Tiebreak was required to separate the teams.
With brilliant serving and winners flying off her racquet, Gadecki took her team out to a 4-1 lead. The other side crept back to 4-5 as Birrell returned Smith’s serve down the line for a winner.
Gadecki hit a great second serve that Smith returned out for 7-5. Birrell aced Peers down the middle but hit the next point out. The score was 9-6 and Gadecki and Peers had three championship points available. They only needed the first as Gadecki smashed into the empty side of the court while both opponents happened to be on the other side.
The score of 3-6 6-4 [10-6] gave 22 year old Gadecki her first grand slam title, and given how well she played, there may be more on the horizon.
On this day that Smith turned 36, the crowd sang Happy Birthday to him and he made his half of the $97,750 prize money for the runner-up team.
For the winners, their 79% of first serve points won and 25 winners got them a shiny silver trophy plus a share of $175,000.
“Thank you for letting me ride the wave”, Gadecki said to her partner. Peers replied, “It was great sharing the court with you”.
Later, he spoke of the importance of winning a slam in his home country. “I don’t get to do it that often, so to be able to play on home soil in front of friends and family is something I definitely don’t take for granted.”
Title photo by Tennis Australia