The University of Mississippi Athletics
Former Rebel Netter Wins 10th Grand Slam Title
1/29/2006 | Men's Tennis
Jan. 29, 2006
MELBOURNE, Australia - Former Ole Miss men's tennis standout Mahesh Bhupathi won his 10th career grand slam title Sunday, teaming with Martina Hingis to take home the Mixed Doubles Championship at the Australian Open.
The pair defeated the No. 6 seed, Daniel Nestor of Canada and Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.
Bhupathi and Hingis opened up a 3-1 lead in the first set after breaking the Russian's serve in the first game. Hingis was broken to even up the set, but Likhovtseva again conceded a break and the opening set was wrapped up in just 30 minutes.
The second set began with an early break for the Indian/Swiss duo, but Nestor and Likhovtseva fought back to win the next three games.
In the seventh game, Bhupathi and Hingis broke Likhovtseva again and held serve to go up 5-3. They gained three match points on Nestor's serve. The first was saved, but when Nestor failed to get a half volley over the net, Bhupathi and Hingis had won the title.
It marked the sixth Mixed Doubles Championship for Bhupathi, but his first grand slam title at the Australian Open. He has now won a grand slam title at all four majors.
"In the back of your mind you'd always like to have all four," Bhupathi said. "This was definitely one of my goals, so winning is pretty special today."
Bhupathi has won all six of his Mixed Doubles titles with different partners. He was asked after the match about playing with Hingis again in future grand slams.
"I don't change partners because I want to (smiling). Both my partners who I played with last year wanted to focus on singles. I knew she (Hingis) was coming back. I asked her about playing again, and I think she said yes so maybe we'll stick together for a while."
While at Ole Miss, Bhupathi led the Rebels to the NCAA team finals. He became the first Rebel tennis player to win an NCAA title when he teamed with Ali Hamadeh to capture the Doubles Championship in 1995 and ended the year as the No. 1 doubles team in the nation. In addition, Bhupathi was an All-American, 1995 SEC Singles Champion and SEC Player of the Year.
