Australian wildcard pair Jaimee Fourlis and Jason Kubler’s outstanding run to the Australian Open mixed doubles final has resulted in a runners up finish.
The Aussie pair enjoyed an incredibly impressive run to the final, but were unable to top off their run with a title, going down to No. 5 seeds Kristina Mladenovic and Ivan Dodig 3-6, 4-6 on Rod Laver Arena.
“It’s been fun. Yeah, today didn't really go our way. They were pretty good opponents. Yeah, we've had so much fun. It's been a pretty fun two, three weeks. We made a final of a slam.
Everyone dreams of that. Yeah, can tick that off the bucket list,” Fourlis said in their post-match press conference.
“It's kind of a weird one, obviously disappointed we lost today, but sort of the run we were on, we could have easily lost first round, second round and semi. I think if we look big picture, it's been a crazy two weeks. But, yeah, just stings a little bit that we didn't win today. It's all good,” Kubler said.
Despite this the loss, both Fourlis and Kubler are both able to take plenty away from the experience of reaching their maiden slam final.
“I think one for me is I played three weeks of tennis without getting injured. I think that's really good. It's not like we were having days off all the time. We were both still training, working through what we needed to work through. I think being here and being at that level for two, three weeks, yeah, take so much confidence out of it, hopefully set up the rest of the year,” Fourlis explained.
“Being at the end of the second week, only the
bigger-name players are around, that was pretty cool. I think we played on Rod Laver twice, Margaret Court. Just playing on the big courts. This time when I went out on the court, I wasn't really nervous that at all because we played the other match on it. Maybe if we play on the bigger courts in other countries, maybe we'll be a bit more comfortable,” Kubler stated.
The win will certainly go a long way in helping the pair fund the remainder of the season.
“I think we get a nice little pay-check after this, which is good. Coaching-wise, even freedom to travel sort of anywhere, which is big. But, yeah, that's probably the biggest thing. If we see a schedule that we want to do, even if it's a little bit more expensive, we can kind of do it now. Yeah, that's probably one of the main things,” Kubler said.
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