Santoro and Llodra do the double Saturday, 31 January, 2004 by Tim Brimblecombe http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/reports/2004-01-31/200401311075532153579.html French duo Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro have completed a successful defence of their Australian Open men's doubles title with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 win over American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan in the final. The No.5 seeds took 84 minutes to overcome the No.1 seeds, who held a 3-1 advantage over the Frenchmen before Australian Open 2004. In the previous meeting between the two teams at the Tennis Masters Cup in Houston just over two months ago, the American duo prevailed in a tough five-set match. It was the third straight year that Llodra and Santoro had reached the Australian Open final. The American pair went into the match having won 17 of their past 18 encounters and looked set to extend that record when they broke early in the first set. But the Frenchmen quickly responded to level at 4-all before they were again under pressure, facing two set points at 15-40 in the tenth game. They recovered to level at 5-all and then had a chance to serve out the set when they broke the Americans in the next game, only to be broken themselves immediately after, forcing the tie-break. Llodra's big left-hand serve proved crucial for the Frenchmen to take the tie-break 7-4 and they took the momentum into the second set for an early break and 3-1 lead. The Bryans had a break chance, but they failed to convert leaving the Frenchmen to serve out the for their second Grand Slam title. To the amusement of the crowd the French pair celebrated their brace of wins by taking most of their clothes off on court.. 哈哈 Santoro and Llodra's second Australian Open win is just the third Grand Slam title by a French pair in the Open era, after Henri Leconte and Yannick Noah combined to win the French Open in 1984. Rod Laver Arena - Men's Doubles - Finals Bob Bryan USA (1) Mike Bryan USA (1) 64 3 Michael Llodra FRA (5) Fabrice Santoro FRA (5) 77 6 Match Facts ‧ The match lasted 1 hour 24 minutes ‧ Total points won: Llodra/Santoro 75, Bryan/Bryan 64 ‧ Break point conversions: Llodra/Santoro 3 of 6, Bryan/Bryan 2 of 9 -- monkey of the year. ▁ ▕猴▏ ▔ --

※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 61.70.206.23