January 23, 2014 - 11:21 PM
MELBOURNE, Australia - Canadian Daniel Nestor and French partner Kristina Mladenovic won their Australian Open mixed doubles semifinal on Friday, defeating China's Zheng Jie and American Scott Lipsky 6-3, 6-1.
The victory in 55 minutes puts the 41-year-old from Toronto into his third mixed final in Australia after lifting titles in 2007 and 2011.
Nestor and Mladovic will take on India's Sania Mirza and Romanian Horia Tecau in Sunday's final after the sixth seeds defeated the Australian pair of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden 2-6, 6-3, 10-2 (match tiebreak).
Nestor is bidding for his fourth mixed trophy and his second with Mladovic after the pair won Wimbledon last summer following a runner-up showing at the French Open.
The first set lasted 25 minutes and ended with a break. Nestor's side took an early lead in the second set with a break and then raced to 5-1 on the way to victory.
Nestor's team took victory with four breaks of serve, going through with 17 winners and just eight unforced errors in a polished performance.
The win was all but trouble-free, with the Nestor side saving a break point in the final game before serving out the victory.
Nestor owns two previous Melbourne mixed titles, winning with Elena Likhovtseva in 2007 and repeating three years ago with Slovenian Katerina Srebotnik.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014