The Victory Of Hsieh Su-wei And Jan Zielinski At The Australian Open 2024 Mixed Doubles Makes History

Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zielinski won the Australian Open 2024 (Instagram/@jan_zielinski_).

JAKARTA - History is engraved in the mixed doubles final of the Australian Open 2024. Hsieh Su-wei and Jan Zielinski's victory over Desirae Krawczik and Neal Skupski set a new record.

Sun-wei/Zielinski who are the third seed to win against second seed, Krawczyk/Skupski, three sets with a score of 6-7 (5), 6-4, and 11-9 on Friday, January 26, 2024 at Rod Laver Arena.

Sun-wei/Zielinski saved a point in a stressful tie-breaking match, before securing victory in less than two hours.

The Australian Open 2024 mixed doubles top match scored a new record. The party became the first to be played by the top two top four pairs during the Melbourne Park event in 23 years.

In addition, this Australian Open 2024 mixed doubles title is the first major trophy for 38-year-old Hsieh and 27-year-old Zielinski.

Hsieh Sun-wei also became the first Chinese Taipei player to win an Australian Open mixed doubles title. While Zielinski was the first Polish player in history to win a major mixed doubles crown labeled Grand Slam.

"That means a lot. Since yesterday I got a lot of messages, a lot of statistics that there were four Polish players (who) lost in the previous final. In fact, have match points."

"This started to cross my mind when we were ahead in the super tiebreak. Then, things started to get a little out of control."

"We are one match point behind. I was like, 'I don't want to be the next person who, you know, we have another chance and people will talk about it'," Zielinski said on the Australian Open website.

"However, Su-Wei said before the game, as we were walking towards the warm-up, that he was a curse break. So, thank him for breaking Poland's curse in the mixed doubles final," he said.

Adding to the drama behind this victory, there is a bad record mixed doubles held by Sun-wei and Zielinski.

Prior to the 2024 Australian Open, Zielinski, who is ranked 17th in the world, had never won mixed doubles matches at the Grand Slam level.

Then, Hsieh, who is ranked sixth in the world, has never surpassed the semifinals in his previous 24 appearances in the mixed doubles main draw.

"I don't know until the last minute with whom I will play. I came to Melbourne not really targeting mixed doubles."

"I lost four times in the first round last year. I came here just for fun and saw how it went."

"When I saw Su-wei's name on the search list, I thought, 'Oh, actually, this could be the best partner I've ever had. Let's try, send a message, see if he wants to play'."

"I knew before we stepped onto the pitch, Su-wei was a very experienced double player. You know, he had a lot of experience and he could take us a long way. It ended up being a decent journey, in my opinion," Zielinski said.