The Australian pairing of Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans have fallen short in their quest to win the Australian Open doubles title.
For Kubler, he had done it all before as a wildcard in the 2023 Australian Open men’s doubles final. The 32-year-old teamed up with Rinky Hijikata to surprise the tennis world and win the title.
First tournament as a team
Kubler and Polmans used a wildcard to gain entry to the Australian Open doubles, it was their first time playing together.
As mentioned, Kubler had won in 2023 and for Polmans, he had reached the semifinals with Andrew Whittington back in 2017. That pairing had defeated the toop seeds in the quarterfinals before losing to Henri Kontinen and John Peers, the eventual champions.
In the 2026 tournament we saw Kubler and Polmans in the Australian Open doubles final.
The Queenslander and Victorian had defeated the 2022 Champions, Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis in the opening round, perhaps thanks to Kokkinakis struggling with a shoulder injury.
In the final they faced Great Britain’s former world No.1 Neal Skupski and American Christian Harrison.
Brotherly love
Both Skupski and Harrison were coached by their brothers, Neal by Ken and Christian by Ryan, as was Polmans with his brother Greg.
Ryan Harrison had already bagged a Grand Slam doubles title after claiming the 2017 Roland Garros title with Michael Venus. So the pressure was on Christian to match his brother.
Skupski had tasted Grand Slam doubles success after winning the 2023 Wimbledon title with Wesley Koolhof.
Kubler and Hijikata had defeated Skupski and Koolhof in the quarters at the 2023 Australian Open.
In the 2026 Australian Open final it was the British/USA pair that took the first break of serve when Kubler was serving in the sixth game and was broken to love.
Harrison/Skupski had saved a break point just minutes earlier after a deep return had forced an error from Harrison. An Ace saved that situation.
The break was consolidated for a 5-2 lead. Polmans would hold for 5-3 before Kubler and Polmans broke the Harrison serve to get back into the set.
Polmans served at 5-6 and had to fight off a break point before the first set went to a tie breaker.
Harrison started with an unplayable serve for 1-0.
Polmans was able to put away a winner to give the Australians the first mini break. Unfortunately a Polmans double fault saw the score at 3-3.
A good reflex volley from Kubler saw the Aussies edge ahead before Harrison fired down two unplayable first serves for 4-5 and Kubler serving.
After a long rally backcourt rally it was Kubler that cracked and he sent a forehand wide to give the opponents a set point.
It was converted after Harrison sent his second serve return deep to Kubler, the Australian could only push the ball back near the net and Skupski smashed away the ball to claim the opening set.
Work to do for the Aussies in the second set
After dropping the first set, Polmans and Kubler had to win the next set to stay in the match.
It didn’t go well when Polmans was broken in the third game. Skupski held serve for a 3-1 lead.
The American and Brit then held serve comfortably until it was 5-4 and Harrison was serving for the title.
They had a championship point in the previous game with Kubler serving, then it was 40-30 and another championship point, but a great smash from Polmans saved that.
At deuce a Polmans return flew long to bring up another championship point and it was this time sealed with an Ace down the T.
It wasn’t to be for Kubler and Polmans, but Polmans would have to be happy with being a Grand Slam doubles finalist. Just a few weeks earlier he had lost in qualifying round 2 for singles at the ATP Challenger 125 in Canberra, and also he lost in the quarterfinals of the doubles, playing with Alex Bolt.
“Thank you so much for everything you do for me,” Kubler said to his fiance, Maddison Inglis, who was proudly watching on in the crowd.
“You had an unbelievable run here and so happy to see these great things happen to you. Let’s keep this going.”
The Kubler/Inglis household collected $902,350 in prizemoney at the Australian Open after Inglis reached the singles fourth round.
Polmans also was recently engaged
There was a lot of talk about Kubler and Inglis having been recently engaged, but Polmans had also become engaged to Jenna Laubser in late November.
Check out the match centre for the Australian Open men’s doubles final.
Also read:
A bridge too far for Maddison Inglis.
