MELBOURNE, Australia -- In a late birthday present for
Corina Morariu, she and Ellis Ferreira beat Joshua Eagle and
Barbara Schett 6-1, 6-3 Sunday to win the mixed doubles
championship at the Australian Open.
It was the second Grand Slam tournament trophy for each of the
winners. Morariu teamed with Lindsay Davenport to win the women's
doubles at Wimbledon in 1999.
Ferreira and Rick Leach won the men's doubles last year at the
Australian Open against Wayne Black and Andrew Kratzmann, and their
18-16 fifth set, which lasted two hours, was twice as long as
Sunday's entire match.
On Morariu's 23rd birthday Friday, she and Davenport let a 3-1
lead slip away in the final set and lost the women's doubles final
to American compatriots Venus and Serena Williams.
"I got a little belated birthday," Morariu said in accepting
her mixed doubles trophy. "This makes up for Friday."
Morariu said she had asked the 30-year-old South African shortly
before the Open to be her mixed doubles partner, although "he
doesn't have a very good reputation for putting in 100 percent
effort in mixed. ... But he played great, obviously."
Ferreira said the problem in the past was that in mixed, "I
always felt that I had to do more. I would miss shots and get
frustrated with myself." Morariu was such a good partner, he
added, that he was able to play the same way he would in men's
doubles.
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