Unseeded pair Stosur, Zhang win Australian Open women’s doubles title

China’s Zhang Shuai, left, and Australia’s Samantha Stosur celebrate a point win over France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Hungary’s Timea Babos during the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

MELBOURNE, Australia — The unseeded pairing of Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai have won their first Grand Slam doubles title together, beating defending champions and No. 2-seeded Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

Australia’s Stosur now owns three major doubles championships, adding this to wins with Lisa Raymond at the 2005 U.S. Open and 2006 French Open. She also won the 2011 U.S. Open singles trophy.

The victory Friday was the 10th in a row for Stosur and China’s Zhang. Their most recent loss was against Babos and Mladenovic at last year’s U.S. Open.

Stosur is the first Australian to win the women’s doubles title at the country’s Grand Slam tournament since Alicia Molik teamed with Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in 2005.