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Calcutta/Paris: Indian fans had a rare problem of plenty during the French Open mixed doubles final, on Friday. With Both Leander Paes and Sania Mirza in action, loyalties might have been divided. But at the end, it was Paes and Martina Hingis who had a last laugh, winning the title with a 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 win over Sania and Ivan Dodig.
The win completed a Career Slam in mixed doubles for the Paes-Hingis duo. The pair, unseeded here, had won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open in 2015.
For Paes, the win would help him to strengthen his claim to be in India's mixed doubles team at the Rio Olympics, where he would want to partner Sania.
Paes and Hingis defeated the Indo-Croat pair in one hour and 28 minutes on Friday.
This was the 18th Grand Slam title for the 42-year-old Paes. For 35-year-old Hingis, it was Grand Slam title No. 22nd and her fifth trophy in the mixed doubles.
Despite being the oldest player on the court, Paes was alert and his presence of mind made a difference to the outcome of the match. Whenever he saw openings, he was able to convert them into points.
Playing with a lot of passion, he put away volleys from ferocious returns of both Sania and Dodig. Dodig was excellent with his service games towards the beginning.
His powerful returns combined with Sania's game made it very tough for Paes and Sania.
The opening set was on serve till the ninth game. But then Paes lost his serve. The second seeds saw there chance when Hingis failed to put a ball back on court on return of Dodig. Sania hit a forehand winner past Hingis to seal the set.
Paes created a chance on Sania's serve in the third game of the second set. He pounced on a volley and hammered the ball hard beyond return.
Sania and Dodig saved two break chances, but the Croat buried the ball on the deciding point to hand the rivals an early break.
Hingis held her serve in the next to create a 3-1 cushion. In the sixth game, Paes double faulted at 30-15 and followed that with two backhand errors to drop his serve. It was back on serve and released the pressure on Sania and Dodig.
However, Hingis and Paes broke Sania immediately with Paes hitting a volley winner on Sania's return on the second breakpoint. Hingis struggled with her first serve but managed to hold for team's 5-3 lead.
Dodig, who was serving extremely well, suddenly faced a breakpoint in the next game but absorbed the pressure with ease and saved two set points, closing the game with an ace. It was now Paes serving for the set and he served extremely well to take the set and force a match tie-breaker.
Paes and Sania lost a point each on their serves and the two pairs were locked 4-4 but the Indo-Swiss pair zoomed to 8-6 lead with Paes winning two hard-fought points. But soon it was 8-all.
Hingis smashed a backhand cross court winner to earn first match point and they sealed it when Dodig's forehand met the net.The winners split 116,000 Euros as prize money while Sania and Dodig got 58,000 Euros.
"Today I complete the Grand Slam with Martina, a player who inspires me," Paes said courtside.
Hingis told Paes: "I am glad you were able to complete the (career) Grand Slam, the one that was missing from your collection with me today."
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