Just wanted to congratulate Elena on winning a slam title with Dan Nestor in the mixed doubles! Am I right in thinking that this is her second slam title in the mixed?

A much-deserved reward for a good pro player and by all accounts very likeable lady.. And I hadn't realised that she had recently contemplated retiring..


Nestor & Likhovtseva take mixed

Likhovtseva and Nestor made up for losing in last year's final

Daniel Nestor and Elena Likhovtseva won the Australian Open mixed doubles title with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Belarus pair Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka.
Canada's Nestor and Russian Likhovtseva were beaten in last year's final by Martina Hingis and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Nestor had previously won men's doubles titles with Mark Knowles at the US and Australian Opens - Likhovtseva won the 2002 Wimbledon mixed with Bhupathi.

Mirnyi, with Jonas Bjorkman, also lost in the men's doubles final on Saturday.

The Nestor-Lihkovtseva pairing almost never happened with the Russian considering retirement at the end of last season.

"I've been on the tour for a long time, and I just decided that I should start doing something different," said the 31-year-old.

"But then I thought I still enjoy it - and I did enjoy it, at the end of last year I had good results - I should maybe go another year."

Nestor said: "I'm very happy that Elena decided not to retire at the end of last year.

"We played well the whole way through and especially today we both played well."

It is pleasing to see her doing slightly better now... she has had a horrid time of late and for her to finally come back and win a mixd doubles slam is fantastic for her. Hopefully now she can come back into form and get her ranking back up in the singles as well.