Babos, Mladenovic win 2nd Australian Open doubles title

Timea Babos and Kristina Mlevic have combined to win ir second Australian Open women's doubles title in three years.

pair routed top-seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Barbora Strycova 6-2, 6-1 on Friday under a closed roof on Rod Laver Arena because of extreme heat in Melbourne.

It was a third consecutive final at Melbourne Park for Babos of Hungary and Mlevic of France, who were runners-up last year, and ir sixth Grand Slam final.

y won 2018 Australian Open and 2019 French Open and were also runners-up at Wimbledon in 2014 and U.S. Open in 2018.

Babos and Mlevic are on a roll as a team, finishing last year strongly by defending ir WTA Finals title with a victory over Hsieh and Strycova in final.

“We both lost pretty early in tournament in singles. It's tough because we are competitors (and) it's t always easy to kind of stick around and keep working and believing,” Mdevic said. “It's beginning of season, so you expect much of yourself.

"It makes it just so much easier to have your best friend by your side because you can fulfill those long days of work with a best friend or family around, I'm very grateful."

Babos summed up ir Melbourne Park success, saying: "re's something about Australia and this amazing court that we love."

re was some consolation for Hsieh, who regained world's .1 doubles ranking from Strycova even in defeat.

Hsieh and Strycova, 2019 Wimbledon champions, won Brisbane International title earlier this month and were unbeaten in ir previous nine matches in 2020. But top seeds were powerless to stop succession of winners flowing off rackets of ir opponents and main rivals on women's tour.

Babos and Mlevic me only four unforced errors in a dominant display.

With temperature soaring to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius), mixed doubles semifinals and women's doubles final were played under a closed roof at Rod Laver Arena.

A brief rain shower in afteron helped lower temperature to about 100 degrees (40 Celsius) during late afteron.