Croatia's Ivan Dodig, right, and Slovakia's Filip Polasek pose with their trophy after defeating Rajeev Ram of the US and Britain's Joe Salisbury in the men's doubles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne (Source: AP) Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek won their first Grand Slam title together on Sunday, taking down defending Australian Open men’s doubles champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 6-3 6-4 in the final.
It was the first Grand Slam triumph for Polasek, 35, who came out of retirement in 2018, while Croatia’s Dodig won his second men’s doubles title after winning the 2015 French Open with Marcelo Melo.
Polasek became only the second Slovakian player to win a Grand Slam after Daniela Hantuchova and dedicated the title to his newborn daughter.
“Since we started to play one and a half years ago, we are really enjoying and playing good tennis,” Dodig said during the trophy ceremony. “We are having a lot of fun and hopefully it is going to continue.”
The duo dominated the final at Rod Laver Arena, breaking their opponents’ serve once in each set during the 88-minute contest.
Such was their domination that they created 15 breakpoint opportunities in the match while not allowing Ram and Salisbury a single look at their own serve.
The defeat denied Ram, 36, a double at Melbourne Park this year after he paired with Barbora Krejcikova to win the mixed doubles title on Saturday.
“Filip, I know it’s your first Grand Slam,” Ram said. “That was way too good. Not sure what we could have done any different, so you guys played awesome.”