Thaindian News

London, July 4 (IANS) India’s Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe beat South African Wesley Moodie and Lisa Raymond of the US 6-4, 7-6 (5) to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title here Sunday.

With this victory, Paes surpassed his one-time doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi in winning the most Grand Slam titles for India. Paes now has six doubles and six mixed-doubles titles. Bhupathi has 11 Grand Slam titles — four doubles and seven mixed doubles titles.

Paes and Black were the runners-up here last year. They won the 2008 US Open and the 2010 Australian Open together. The finalists have a slew of Wimbledon doubles titles between them.

Paes, 37, won the 1999 (with Lisa Raymond) and 2003 (with Martina Navratilova) mixed titles, and the 1999 men’s doubles (with Bhupathi).

Black has won three Wimbledon ladies’ doubles titles and one mixed doubles title.

Paes and Black have forged a successful partnership. They have reached five Grand Slam finals winning three titles in two years.

Paes and Navratilova notched up two titles in four Grand Slam finals.

In the 2010 Australian Open, Paes partnering Black, outplayed Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Czech Jaroslav Levinsky.

They took 37 minutes to win the first set that saw five breaks of serve.

It was a close fight in the second set, but Paes and Black held their nerves. Paes sealed the victory with a volley at the net in the tie-break to finish the match in nearly two hours.