Mixed doubles top seeds bounced by wildcards

Australia’s world no. 1 women’s doubles player Storm Hunter teamed up with Australia’s world no. 4 men’s doubles player Matthew Ebden to play in the Australian Open mixed doubles tournament.

They went in as the no. 1 seeds and had recently had time together during the United Cup, this all pointed to a successful campaign at the Open.

Wildcard entrants Jaimee Fourlis and Andrew Harris had other ideas.

The lesser known Australian pairing defeated Hunter and Ebden 6-4, 7-6(8).

Hunter and Ebden broke to go to 4-2 in the opening set however after that it was all Harris and Fourlis as they won the next four games.

In the second set both pairings held serve until the 11th game when Fourlis and Harris broke. Instead of serving out the match the wildcards were broken to send the set to a tiebreaker.

Hunter and Ebden raced to a 5-1 lead and then held three match points at 6-3 in the breaker. At 6-5 Ebden had two overheads that he just could not put away.

Eventually with Fourlis serving to Ebden at 7-6, the return was netted and the no. 1 seeds were out of the tournament.

The other Australians still in the tournament are Marc Polmans and Oliva Gadecki who came from a set behind to win their match against Michael Venus and Aldila Sutjiadi 5-7, 6-3, (10-6).

Harris and Fourlis face no. 7 seeds Laura Siegemund and Sander Gille in the quarterfinals. Polmans and Gadecki will take on Gabriela Dabrowski and Nathaniel Lammons the no. 6 seeds.