Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Bruno Soares of Brazil won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title on Thursday.
The unseeded team beat the fourth-seeded pair of Kveta Peschke of Czech Republic and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 6—7 (8), 6—1, 12—10 tiebreak.
Makarova and Soares wasted an 8—4 lead in the tiebreak and faced a championship point at 9—10.
“We knew we were a pretty good team,” Soares said. “When we saw the draw, they made it very tough for us. ... After the first match we played really good, and we talked to each other and said, ‘If we keep playing like this, for sure we’re going to have a chance to win the title.’
“That’s what happened. We had an amazing second round, and after that we knew it was just a matter of keep playing good.”
Makarova, who lost to Serena Williams in singles in the third round, was a mixed doubles runner-up with Jaroslav Levinsky at the 2010 Australian Open.
