Vink and Schroder complete career Golden Slam in doubles
From the first serve to Championship point, every shot that came off Niels Vink and Sam Schroder’s rackets made their intentions pretty clear. To banish the ghosts of Australian Open's past and finally get their hands on the one Slam doubles title that had so far eluded them.
And with their 6-1 6-3 win over Donald Ramphadi and Ymanitu Silva in today’s final, the Dutch duo did exactly that.
“Finally!” Schroder said. “Last year we came close in the final against David (Wagner) and Andy (Lapthorne) but didn’t quite make it over the line. But we played a better match and had a higher level today and it feels great to get the win.
"This year we are more confident than we were last year,” Vink added. “Today we played our game and last year we played their game so this was our year.”
In doing so they complete a career Golden Slam as a partnership - having now won all four quad doubles titles at the majors plus a Paralympic gold medal in Tokyo - and also now hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.
“It’s great - not a lot of people can say they’ve done that so that definitely makes it special for us," Schroder said. "And I guess four Slam titles in a row is pretty amazing too, so hopefully we’ll continue to get the results."
The pair have no plan on resting on their successes to date and have firm ideas on what they want to achieve next as a doubles team.
“I am very happy with what we’ve done together, to have all four is good, but now we want all four in one season," declared Vink.
“When the important points came today we were ready for them”
Earlier on in the day another dynamic Dutch duo were claiming an Australian Open title. This wasn’t Diede de Groot and Aniek Van Koot’s first though, but their fourth.
Having previously won the women’s doubles title together in 2019, 2021 and 2022, they were also looking to make it three consecutive years of doubles success at the first major of the year.
And they wasted no time in achieving that. Putting a disappointing loss to Yui Kamiji and Zhenzhen Zhu in the Melbourne Open final a week ago behind them and turning that disappointment into their motivation against the same opponents in Melbourne Park today. Earning them a straight sets victory over the number two seeds 6-3 6-2 and their 13th major title as partners.
“We had so much motivation to go out there and play our way because last week against them we didn’t do that so we couldn’t make our game plan work," said Van Koot. "Today was much better.”
“There were quite a few games today where every time we reached 30-0 they brought it back to 30-all,” de Groot added. “But when the important points came today we were ready for them and I think that was important and what made the difference.”
“The improvements we’re making as a team will only help our confidence”
There were also some familiar Champions crowned in the men’s open division. Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid claiming their fourth consecutive Australian Open title together with a 6-1 6-2 win over Dutch pair Maikel Scheffers and Ruben Spaargaren.
“It feels good to get the win today in the final and in a relatively short space of time for us," said Hewett. "Last week when we played them in the semi-finals of a preparation tournament it took us three and a half hours or so I think. The improvements we’re making as a team and performances like today will only help our confidence and we can build on that.”
With a performance that could be counted among one of their best, Reid’s final serve on their third Championship point not only sent a message to their opponents for the rest of the 2023 season that they were back in business, but also reminded everyone just why they have become such a dominant force in men’s doubles.
“One of the big positives for me this week and trip has been my serve," said Reid. "As a lefty on the ad side, a slider out wide is my favourite serve and I always love bringing it out in those big moments so it was good to finish the final with one of those.”