Zhang, Stosur win Australian Open women’s doubles title

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China's Zhang Shuai and Australia's Samantha Stosur won the final match of women's doubles 6-3, 6-4 against Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.

It was the first time that Zhang played in a Grand Slam final and the champion title gave her a career-high moment. She also became China's sixth Grand Slam winner and China's fourth Grand Slam women's doubles winner.

The two have been paired up since the U.S. Open last September where the last Australian Open champions, tournament's second seeds Babos/Mladenovic knocked the Sino-Aussie duo out of the semi-finals.

Samantha Stosur of Australia and Zhang Shuai of China in action during the women's doubles final of the 2019 Australian Open against Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, January 25, 2019 /VCG Photo

Before the tournament, Zhang's world ranking was 40th in singles and the 32nd in doubles, while Stosur's were both ranked around the 70th. Their rivals Bobas and Mladenovic ranked at 65th and 43rd respectively in singles but were both third in doubles.

The 30-year-old Zhang and hometown fellow Wang Qiang were both knocked out of the third round of the singles and her mixed doubles partner, India's Rohan Bopanna didn't qualify for the second round of mixed doubles.

The 34-year-old Stosur was knocked out in the first round in the singles and the second round of mixed doubles with India's Leander Paes.

Samantha Stosur of Australia and Zhang Shuai of China greet Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France during the final of the 2019 Australian Open women's doubles at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, January 25, 2019. /VCG Photo

During the tournament, Zhang/Stosur beat Slovakian duo Magdalena Rybarikova and Viktoria Kuzmova 7-6(7), 6-2 in the first round, conquered the pair of Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and Abigail Spears of the U.S. 7-6(8), 6-2 in the second round, defeated Alize Cornet of France and Petra Martic of Croatia 7–5, 6–3 in the third round, edged the tournament's No.1 seeds, Czech Republic's duo Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova 7-6(7-2), 7-6(7-4) in the quarter-finals, and knocked out another Czech pair Barbora Strycova and Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in the semi-finals.

At the award ceremony, Zhang thanked the tournament's staff, the team, and the fans in English and Chinese and expressed her willingness to take on more challenges.

Zhang's previous best Australian Open result occurred in 2016 in women's singles, where she stormed into the quarter-finals but failed to win against Johanna Konta.

Samantha Stosur of Australia and Zhang Shuai of China hold the women's doubles trophy of the 2019 Australian Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, January 25, 2019. /VCG Photo

The last time that a Chinese female player won a doubles tournament at the Australian Open was in 2006 where the temporal 12th seeds, Zheng Jie/Yan Zi defeated Aussie-U.S. pair Samantha Stosur/Lisa Raymond in the final. The all-Chinese duo also bagged that year's Wimbledon women's doubles champions.

In the following years, the pair composed of Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai was the pride of Chinese women's doubles in grand slams as they grabbed titles at Wimbledon in 2013 and Roland-Garros in 2014.

The Tianjin native Zhang was the champion of Guangzhou Open in women's single in 2017. Before, her career-high singles ranking of world No. 23 was achieved on November 14, 2016, and her career-high doubles ranking of No. 29 was achieved on April 1, 2013.