Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova are a US Open victory away from a women's doubles career grand slam after winning the Australian Open final.
Barbora Krejcikova has shaken off her Australian Open singles exit to claim a first Melbourne Park doubles championship and take a step closer to sealing a women's doubles career grand slam with Katerina Siniakova.
No.1 doubles seeds Krejcikova and Siniakova dropped the first set of Sunday's final against unseeded pair Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia but regrouped to prevail 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 6-4 and secure their first hardcourt slam.
The Czech pair previously claimed doubles crowns at Wimbledon in 2018 and Roland Garros in 2018 and 2021 - with Krejcikova winning both the French Open singles and doubles titles last year - along with Tokyo Olympic gold.
"(Siniakova has been) playing with me for a very, very long time, and I'm still happy that we are still working really, really well together and our cooperation is only going going up," Krejcikova said.
The win eases the blow of a tough Melbourne Park singles campaign for Krejcikova, who looked in ominous form early at the Open, but suffered a surprise quarter-final loss to Madison Keys.
Heading into the final, Krejcikova and Siniakova hadn't dropped a set all tournament while Danilina and Haddad Maia had played four consecutive three-set encounters.
In stifling heat at Rod Laver Arena, Danilina and Haddad Maia, who won the Sydney Tennis Classic together, ripped through the first six points of the opening set tie-break and claimed the early ascendancy.
But the top seeds broke Haddad Maia's serve in the opening game of the second set and kicked on from there.
Krejcikova and Siniakova earned a double break and 5-2 lead in the decider but Danilina and Haddad Maia fought back to force Krejcikova to serve out the match, with the Czech able to complete the fightback.
"A big thanks to Barbora, because we are teammates for a long time and it's really hard," Siniakova said.
"It's not easy every day but we try to support each other and today we were fighting really hard. We needed to push each other."
