Zimonjic, Srebotnik win mixed doubles title

Paris:

Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia rallied to win the mixed doubles title at the French Open, beating Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and Julian Knowle of Austria, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9 tiebreak on Thursday.

Srebotnik and Zimonjic faced match point in the super tiebreaker, then won the last three points. Zimonjic saved the match point with an ace on his second serve and clinched victory with a volley.

"We were a little bit lucky," he said. "I don't know how we won today, really to be honest."

Srebotnik complimented Knowle and Shvedova during the trophy ceremony.

"Hopefully, next time you win," she told them, "but not against us."

The winners are not done yet at Roland Garros.

Srebotnik teams with Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic against Serena and Venus Williams in the women's doubles final on Friday, while Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor of Canada play defending champions Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India in the men's doubles final on Saturday.

Zimonjic and Srebotnik won the French Open mixed doubles in 2006 and were runners-up in 2007 and 2008. Srebotnik also won the title in 1999 with Piet Norval of South Africa.