TRUNG LATIEULE
Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany won the mixed doubles title at the French Open by defeating eighth-seeded Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Julia Goerges of Germany 4-6, 6-2, 10-7 on Thursday.
Rojer was playing his first Grand Slam final while Groenefeld won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon with Mark Knowles of the Bahamas in 2009.
“I gained a friend this week. I lost one, because I had to tell some other player that I’m not playing with her,” Rojer said. “So I hope she understands, especially now. But I apologized like 18 times to her.”
Rojer and Groenefeld were teaming up for the first time.
“Actually, I was asking around,” Groenefeld said. “No one wanted to play with me, and then he said yes.”
They saved three match points in the semifinal against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and Bruno Soares of Brazil on Wednesday.
Zimonjic and Goerges took the opening set when the Serb hit a forehand return winner off Rojer’s serve.
Rojer and Groenefeld evened the match as Goerges dropped serve twice in the second set. They won four straight points in the final-set champions tiebreaker to lead 5-2 before clinching the victory when Goerges netted a backhand volley.
“For Julia, it was difficult to get into the match. For sure, it was difficult because it was her first (major) final,” Zimonjic said. “Anna-Lena, she has more experience. She played already finals at Wimbledon, so I’m sure that’s what helped her a lot there.”
Zimonjic won the mixed doubles title at the French Open in 2006 and 2010 with Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.
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