The victory handed Mertens her sixth Grand Slam title while Zhang won her third but the triumph almost never happened, with the Chinese-Belgian pair forced to save three match points in the second round against teenagers Iva Jovic and Victoria Mboko.
“It’s been quite a week so far,” said Mertens, who is set to move up to world number one in the doubles rankings.
“I’m lost for words. In the second round of doubles, we had three match points against us. We kept on fighting, we kept on believing and we really grew as a team. Today, in the final, I’m happy that I served it out eventually.
“It’s the first week that we’ve actually played together and what a result. It’s been amazing.”
The experience of Mertens and Zhang shone through in the tiebreak, with the Belgian underlining her class on a standout point, producing a flurry of quick-reaction shots to bring up set point before the pair wrapped up the set in 55 minutes.
The fourth seeds carried that momentum into the second set to take a commanding 5-0 lead with assured net play and well-placed winners before Danilina and Krunic managed to get on the board.
Although they fought back and saved two championship points as Krunic lit up the Rod Laver Arena, the fourth seeds sealed victory on Mertens’ serve when Zhang fired a backhand winner.
Zhang says she and Mertens adapted well.
“We know how to play finals, we know how to win finals,” she said. “We are both very calm. If something doesn’t work . . . we always adjust.”
On the men’s side, sixth seeds Neal Skupski and Christian Harrison beat Australia’s Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans 7-6(4) 6-4 to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title as the British-American duo first Grand Slam event as a team. (Reuters/AP)
