The Latest: Mladenovic, Babos win Australian women's doubles

By Associated Press 31 January 2020, 12:00AM

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest on the Australian Open (all times local):

6:30 p.m.

Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic have combined to win their second Australian Open women's doubles title in three years.

The pair routed top-seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Barbora Strycova 6-2, 6-1 under a closed roof at Melbourne Park because of the extreme heat.

It was a third consecutive final at Melbourne Park for Babos of Hungary and Mladenovic of France, who were runners-up last year, and their sixth Grand Slam final.

They won the 2018 Australian Open and the 2019 French Open and were also runners-up at Wimbledon in 2014 and the U.S. Open in 2018.

Babos and Mladenovic are on a roll as a team, finishing last year strongly by defending their WTA Finals title with a victory over Hsieh and Strycova in the final.Hsieh is set to replace Strycova at No. 1 when the new women's doubles rankings are released Monday.

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5:15 p.m.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jamie Murray have defeated Astra Sharma and John-Patrick Smith 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the mixed doubles semifinals at Melbourne Park.

Mattek-Sands and Murray will be bidding for their third Grand Slam mixed doubles title together when they face Barbora Krejcikova and Nikola Mektic in Saturday's final.

Murray is the older brother of three-time major singles champion Andy.

Krejcikova and Mektic advanced by eliminating Gabriela Dabrowski and Henri Kontinen 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the other semifinal.

Krejcikova won the Australian Open mixed doubles championship last year with Rajeev Ram.

Mattek-Sands won it in 2012 with Horia Tecau.

Both of Friday's semifinals were played with the main stadium's retractable roof shut because the temperature soared to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius).

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4 p.m.

With the temperature soaring to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius), the mixed doubles semifinals have been played under a closed roof at Rod Laver Arena.

The Australian Open's “heat stress reading” reached a maximum level of 5.

In addition to shutting the main stadium's roof, tournament officials postponed the start of play for junior and wheelchair competition because those were scheduled for smaller courts that do not have a retractable roof.

A brief rain shower in the afternoon helped lower the temperature to about 100 degrees (40 Celsius).

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More AP Tennis: https://www.apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

By Associated Press 31 January 2020, 12:00AM

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